Recipient of the Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship, cellist and conductor Nico Olarte-Hayes has given solo recitals at Lincoln Center and the Neue Galerie in New York City, in Memphis’ Artists Ascending Series and New York’s Young Musician’s Forum, and throughout the Netherlands and Japan. As cellist, he has played on Live From Lincoln Center (PBS) and The Kennedy Center Honors (CBS) in tribute to violinist Itzhak Perlman, a longtime mentor, and has collaborated frequently with Perlman, most notably in the grand opening gala concert of The Kennedy Center’s Family Theater. Other collaborations include performances with mezzo-soprano Denyce Graves in Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, pianist Christopher O’Riley in Boston’s Jordan Hall, and violinist Ryu Goto in sold-out tours of Japan and the United States, broadcast on PBS, NPR, and Fuji TV, respectively. 

As conductor, Nico is the recent recipient of a Sir Georg Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award and winner of the Vincent C. LaGuardia Conducting Competition. He has conducted the New York City Ballet, New World Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Brooklyn Symphony Orchestra, Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra, Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic, Savaria Symphony Orchestra, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra, and Salzburg Chamber Soloists, and served as Music Director of New York’s IconoClassic Opera and Harvard’s Dunster House Opera, leading fully staged productions of Massenet’s Werther and Britten’s Albert Herring. He has also served as cover conductor for the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and Virginia Symphony Orchestra, attended the Tanglewood Festival Conducting Seminar, and taken lessons with Jorma Panula, Peter Gülke, Larry Rachleff, Peter Eötvös, Kenneth Kiesler, Stefan Asbury, and Michael Tilson Thomas.

A devoted educator, Nico recently served on the faculty of the Valissima Institute for young female conductors, and for a number of years collaborated with Kenya’s Art of Music Foundation to bring music lessons to underserved students in Nairobi. As a teenager, Nico toured extensively as an ambassador for Midori and Friends, giving performances in New York’s public schools, and on the third anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center was asked by the City of New York to perform at “Ground Zero” for the official memorial on NBC. In recognition of his artistic contributions to his community, Nico was awarded the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Award, given a Hispanic Heritage Youth Award, and honored by the Davidson Institute for Talent Development.

Nico was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and began musical studies with his mother at the age of three. He completed his pre-college studies “with distinction” at The Juilliard School under cellists David Soyer and Harvey Shapiro, and studied for many years at the Perlman Music Program under Ronald Leonard. Nico graduated with honors from the Harvard/NEC Joint Program, simultaneously earning an A.B. in Physics from Harvard College, where he studied music with Robert Levin, and an M.M. from the New England Conservatory studying with Laurence Lesser. He currently lives in New York, where he is on the faculty of Juilliard’s Pre-College Division and the Perlman Music Program.