About Pamela
Pamela Tan-Nicholson is a British creative entrepreneur of Chinese origin, and Singaporean by birth, with interests in the leisure, entertainment and hospitality industry.
Born Pamela Tan Soei Luang, she started early in broadcasting. As a child she appeared regularly on a Chinese language children’s weekly radio playhouse (儿童剧社). In her teens, she became the first ever bi-lingual TV personality, actress and musician for Singapore’s national broadcasting body – at the time known as RTS (Radio Television Singapore; subsequently renamed SBC and now Media Corps).
A prodigious pianist who gave her first public performance at 8, Tan-Nicholson was awarded her LRSM (Performer’s) Diploma aged 15; then gave her debut full-length solo recital, under the joint patronage of then Minister of Culture Jek Yuen Thong and his wife.
On reaching the legal qualifying age, she also acquired the LRSM (Teacher’s) Diploma. Whilst teaching at Victor Doggett’s Music Studios, she performed weekly with her piano trio at the Raffles Hotel; and hosted a TV series. Using her multi-faceted education as background, Tan-Nicholson scripted and fronted for many years, Singapore’s first bi-lingual cultural programme on television (艺云循声) introducing viewers, not only to her own piano performances, but as well, to interesting alternative cultural artforms.
During her time in Singapore, she was also one of the youngest founder members of the first National Dance Company. Whilst at law school, she co-founded the Singapore Philharmonic Orchestra, sowing roots for the formation of Singapore’s full-fledged professional Singapore Symphony Orchestra.
Tan-Nicholson became a lawyer first in Singapore and then moved in 1983 to practise in London with Baker McKenzie, an international law firm. She left the law in the early 1990s to pursue an international artistic career that now spans almost four decades.
Described by a London critic as “the one-woman polymath, Pamela Tan-Nicholson” is both a traditional classicist and an innovative modernist. She is recognised for her success at combining varied genres, different disciplines and multi-cultural influences. Her unique ability to transcend music genres has made traditional and classical music accessible to millions.
As writer, director and producer, Tan-Nicholson conceptualised and powered her daughter, Vanessa-Mae, to international stardom. The compositions which she gifted to her daughter formed Vanessa-Mae’s biggest early hits and continuing best-sellers. Tan-Nicholson was also solely responsible for all her daughter’s most successful touring and recording projects. She is as well the driving creative force behind Vasko Vassilev whose career she cultivated from being a multiple international competition prize-winner into a Concertmaster legend of unrivalled distinction at the Royal Opera House and the Super World Orchestra; all in addition to being an iconic superstar soloist and conductor.
Joaquin Cortez, Zucchero, Madonna, Sting, Simon Callow, Andy Serkis, Ian McKellen, Steven McRae, Jose Carreras, Paco Pena are some artists from other disciplines, with whom Pamela Tan-Nicholson has collaborated, through writing, staging or performing successful original shows and recordings. For one event at the Royal Albert Hall, she rose to the unique challenge of merging stars and music from 14 nations into a seamless symphonic gala conducted by Vasko Vassilev. At the Royal Opera House, she is known for her inventive experimental integration of different types of guest artists; – even Les Folies Bergere with the Soloists of the Royal Opera House.
Pamela’s work covers film, television, live performance and chart-topping records, which can be found across all major labels with tracks featuring in films and also sports such as the Torino Winter Olympics, the Beijing Summer Olympics, F1, twice at the World Ice-Skating Dance Championships and the Athens Olympics Commemorative Album.
Of commercial significance is her work for Disney whose appreciation of Happy Valley (which she wrote for the Re-unification of Hong Kong to China), led directly to their commission for her to write and produce the end-title track for the European release of the original Mulan animation film and its soundtrack album. Simultaneously, for Buena Vista Films, Tan-Nicholson also wrote and directed a TV documentary about Mulan which was released in conjunction with the world-wide movie launch. Disney further entrusted to her the ‘live’ performances at the official trans-European film premieres which included participation by the National State Circus of China. This in turn led to the Chinese authorities inviting her to collaborate with CCTV, China’s national television company and Bei Ao, the government’s production powerhouse behind the Beijing Olympics.
Aside from commercial and sporting events, Tan-Nicholson and her music have also proven popular in political arenas. As part of the 2008 Olympics, Pamela became the first foreign artist to perform her original music on China’s CCTV National News Channels to 800,000,000 viewers in appearances at the People’s Congress Hall in Beijing, and at Westminster Hall in London, (being the successor host to Beijing). In 2008, she also performed in Tokyo at the official event commemorating the first meeting in a decade of China’s and Japan’s leaders. On numerous other occasions, she has performed or produced shows for G7, various Heads of State, HM Queen Elizabeth II, HRHs Prince Charles and Prince Edward at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle; and she has also executed noteworthy Royal commissions in Brunei and Dubai.
At last count, Tan-Nicholson has toured to over 40 countries and notable venues as varied as the Royal Opera House, Berlin Philharmonie, the Kremlin, Madison Square Gardens, Ajax Stadium, St Moritz’s frozen lake, the Colorado World Cup slopes, the Baalback ancient ruins, the Plovdiv Roman amphitheatre, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle etc.
In 2018, Tan-Nicholson launched Trioperas, an ambitious project which re-imagined opera for a 21st century audience, leading reviewers to praise not only her musical vision but its importance in the context of a global society. The show ran for 8 weeks in the West End of London and awaits the end of Covid to commence international touring.
As a pianist, Tan-Nicholson continues to be in constant demand and within the constraints of Covid restrictions, she still ended a successful 2021 with a European tour for Wom@rts, an EU initiative promoting women in culture. Tan-Nicholson was an unsurprising choice to headline the climax of this project, not just in recognition of her own achievements as a woman but as well for her respected role championing women in orchestras. Tan-Nicholson has a history of engaging successfully with all-women orchestras with whom she has performed in the Middle East, Eastern Europe and in the UK.
The final performance (in Spain), El Comercio proclaimed, was ‘the culmination of the European Project Wom@rts, a multinational collaborative focused on raising the profile of creative talents and promoting equal opportunities in the arts – both objectives clearly attained last night. Pamela Tan Nicholson made the audience of Palacio Valdes Theatre tremble… For a few hours, Aviles’ theatre par excellence was able to enjoy the stellar baton of the pianist and director Londoner Pamela Tan-Nicholson’.
Since settling in London, Tan-Nicholson has returned periodically to her roots in Singapore for special projects. In the 80s, she collaborated with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra to host the Bang Olufsen Music Festival of which she was Artistic Director. In 1991, she toured Asia with the Mozart Players in Mozart’s Bicentennial Year and presented her daughter’s debut in Singapore, for which Tan-Nicholson proudly received personal congratulations from the late national leaders, Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Keng Swee. Tan-Nicholson also promoted the Singapore Symphony Orchestra’s debut tour to the UK where they performed in Manchester and London.
As the only ‘living’ composer ever to feature in the long-established Toyota Classics series, Tan-Nicholson was thrilled to include Singapore in two of her three Asian tours for the series. In 2012, for Toyota Classics’ 25th anniversary, she performed with the Covent Garden Soloists Orchestra at Marina Bay. In 2016, she returned with the Baltic Neopolis Orchestra to celebrate the 10th anniversary of ASEAN. Commissioned to write a commemorative anthem, Tan-Nicholson composed “ASEAN Harmony”, which was performed by children from each ASEAN country singing in various national languages of the territory.
Through her company, Trittico Limited, founded in 1991 and based in London, Pamela and her creative team produce recordings, conceptualise shows and promote concerts, events and tours. Trittico is a Government approved supplier to many European regional government bodies for related artistic and creative activities; and enjoys a long history of servicing established “institutions” such as the Royal Opera House, the Covent Garden Soloists Orchestra, the Philharmonia, the London Chamber Orchestra, Jose Carreras etc.
Tan-Nicholson also has interests in the hospitality industry which are grounded, historically, in her family ties to the food and beverage business; and, more recently, through personal and professional associations with household names in the sector e.g. Transport for London, LIDL, Bansko Resort, Mastercard, Shangri-la (China), K2 Hotels (Courchevel). Tan-Nicholson is currently co-developing a new project in France, comprising hotel and branded residences, which will merge distinctive artistic and historic elements and draw on Eastern and Western influences. The development is a flagship project for Val d’Isere, where she already owns a 17th century monastery (Toit du Monde) which operates as a high-end luxury chalet. The new project will be the first in Val d’Isere to boast management by an international luxury hotel chain.
Pamela Tan-Nicholson also formed a company in Singapore during the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics and the pan-Asia Toyota Classics tours. She is now planning to focus energy and resources on the development of multi-lingual and cross-cultural projects in her home territory, with an emphasis on world-wide reach through interactive education and re-education for music lovers. To this end, she intends to base herself in Singapore to research both local and regional resources to progress this ambition.
