Nicholas Ivor Gotham, known as Nic Gotham, (27 September 1959 – 25 July 2013) was a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

jazz saxophonist and composer. His 1992 chamber opera, '' Nigredo Hotel'', won two

Dora Award The Dora Mavor Moore Awards (also known as the Dora Awards or the Doras) are awards presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA), honouring theatre, Dance in Canada, dance and opera productions in Toronto. Named after ...

s and was nominated for the

Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award The Floyd S. Chalmers Canadian Play Award was a Canadian literary award given to Canadian plays produced by any professional Canadian theatre company, and having performances in the Toronto area. The prize had a monetary value of $25,000, and wa ...

Biography

Life and career

Gotham was born in

Eastleigh Eastleigh is a town in Hampshire, England, between Southampton and Winchester. It is the largest town and the administrative seat of the Borough of Eastleigh, with a population of 24,011 at the United Kingdom 2011 census, 2011 census. The town ...

, England and grew up in

Ancaster, Ontario Ancaster is a community in the city of Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton in the Canadian province of Ontario. Founded in 1792, it immediately developed itself into one of the first significant and influential early Kingdom of Great Britain, British U ...

where his family emigrated when he was four years old. He studied at the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

and at

York University York University (), also known as YorkU or simply YU), is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's third-largest university, and it has approximately 53,500 students, 7,000 faculty and staff, ...

, Toronto under the saxophonist David Mott and composer

James Tenney James Tenney (August 10, 1934 – August 24, 2006) was an American composer and music theorist. He made significant early musical contributions to plunderphonics, sound synthesis, algorithmic composition, process music, spectral music, microt ...

. In the mid-1980s he played with

Fred Stone Fred Andrew Stone (August 19, 1873 – March 6, 1959) was an American actor. Stone began his career as a performer in circuses and minstrel shows, went on to act in vaudeville, and became a star on Broadway and in feature films, which earned hi ...

's improvising ensemble (known informally as Freddie's Band). He went on to form his own ensembles which were active in the Canadian jazz scene during the late 1980s and 1990s, including his first band "Gotham City", "Hemispheres" (a fifteen piece "big band" specialising in jazz and new music), and "40 Fingers" (an improvising saxophone quartet). In 1988 Gotham approached Canadian playwright Ann-Marie MacDonald to write the

libretto A libretto (From the Italian word , ) is the text used in, or intended for, an extended musical work such as an opera, operetta, masque, oratorio, cantata or Musical theatre, musical. The term ''libretto'' is also sometimes used to refer to th ...

for his first opera, ''Nigredo Hotel'' after having composed the incidental music and sound effects for her play '' Goodnight Desdemona''. The opera, a commission by Tapestry New Opera Works, was premiered by the company on 13 May 1992 at the

Tarragon Theatre The Tarragon Theatre is a theatre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and one of the main centers for contemporary playwriting in the country.

in Toronto. The production went on to win two

s and the work was nominated for the

.Wagner, Vit (8 June 1995)
"Nigredo Hotel opens yet again; Second debut a rare victory for modern opera"
''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands (Torstar), Daily News Brands division. ...

'', p. G.2. Retrieved 23 October 2013. It was subsequently performed in several other Canadian cities and at the Glasgow Mayfest, revived in Toronto in 1995 and 2005, and received its Australian premiere in 2006.Wilson, Janet (October 2006)
"Challenging work with top singers"
, ''Opera~Opera'', p. 18. Retrieved 23 October 2013. Gotham received the Freddie Stone Award, which honours a Canadian musician "who reflects musical integrity and innovation", in 1997. The following year, he and his wife, the

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

n-Canadian playwright Ban̦uta Rubess, and their two children moved to

Riga Riga ( ) is the capital, Primate city, primate, and List of cities and towns in Latvia, largest city of Latvia. Home to 591,882 inhabitants (as of 2025), the city accounts for a third of Latvia's total population. The population of Riga Planni ...

. There, Gotham became a prominent figure in the Latvian jazz and contemporary music world as a teacher, performer, and composer, with works commissioned and premiered by the Riga Saxophone Quartet, the Latvian Radio Choir, the Sinfonietta Riga and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra. His second chamber opera ''Oh Pilot!'' with a libretto by Ban̦uta Rubess was premiered by the

Latvian National Opera The Latvian National Opera and Ballet (LNOB) is an opera house and opera company at Aspazijas boulevard 3 in Riga. Its repertoire includes performances of opera and ballet presented during the season which lasts from mid-September to the end of ...

in 2007.

Opera America __NOTOC__ Opera America (stylized as OPERA America) is a New York–based service organization promoting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera in the United States. Almost all professional opera company, opera companies and some semi-pr ...

New Works Directory: ''Oh Pilot''
Retrieved 4 November 2013. Shortly before death he received his PhD in music composition research from

Brunel University Brunel University of London (BUL) is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution. It became a university ...

with a doctoral dissertation entitled ''Form and freedom: the marriage of musical systems and intuition''. Latvian Radio 3 broadcast a program devoted to his life and music on what would have been his 54th birthday (27 September 2013). Latvijas Radio 3 (27 September 2013)
"Neakadēmiski: Nika Gothama mūzika"
Retrieved 4 November 2013 .

Death

Gotham and his family returned to Canada after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2011. He died in Toronto at the age of 53.

References

External links

*
Nic Gotham (1959-2013): Jazz Saxophonist, Composer of Most Performed Canadian Opera – Obituary and Concert Review
by Andrew Timar on the blog of the Canadian magazine ''The WholeNote''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gotham, Nic Canadian jazz saxophonists Canadian male saxophonists Canadian male jazz composers Canadian opera composers Canadian male opera composers 1959 births 2013 deaths Musicians from Hamilton, Ontario University of Western Ontario alumni York University alumni Canadian classical composers 20th-century Canadian saxophonists 20th-century Canadian male musicians 20th-century Canadian jazz composers