American pianist Nicky Purser holds a bachelor’s, master’s, and performer diploma from Indiana University Bloomington, as well as the Licentiate of the Royal Schools of Music and a diplôme supérieur d’enseignement and diplôme supérieur de musique de chambre from the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. In 2016 she received the diplôme d’études musicales (D.E.M) from the Conservatoire of Boulogne-Billancourt. Her primary teachers have been Edmund Battersby, Jean-Louis Haguenauer, Erik Berchot, Pavlos Yallourakis, Valerica Maican, and Julien LePape.
During her studies at Indiana University, she was an assistant instructor for the Music Theory department. Her studies in Paris were generously supported by the Harriet Hale Woolley Scholarship of the American Foundation of Paris, an artistic residence at the Cité Internationale des Arts of Paris, and a scholarship from the Ecole Normale in Paris. In 2015 she received the accompanist prize by a unanimous jury at the Young Soloists Competition of the Sorbonne in Paris.
She is a founding member of the Nishi Duo (saxophone and piano) and Contrio (saxophone-piano-percussion), two ensembles focused on promoting classical and contemporary music.
Recent appearances include invitations to the Ensemble Linea summer festival, the Philomuses Association, the International Chamber Orchestra of Washington, and the Festival Impromptu in Chambonr-sur-Lignon. She has collaborated with members of TM+, the National Orchestra of France, and the Radio France choir. She has also worked with composers Don Freund, Carlos Grätzer, Alexandros Markeas, Simone Movio, François Rossé, Betsy Jolas, and Denis Levaillant. In 2018 the Nishi Duo will give the world premier of a work dedicated to them, Robert Lemay’s Deroulement, at the 18th World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb.
Now based in Paris, she teaches at Classique en Jean in Colombes and the Koenig School American Conservatory in Paris.