Nick Baron, Percussionist, works as an extra with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Welsh National Opera, and since 2005 he has been the timpanist in the Dartington Festival Orchestra conducted by Diego Masson. As well as orchestral playing, Nick has studied jazz vibraphone with Anthony Kerr (BBC Big Band, The Lion King) and saxophonist Pee Wee Ellis (James Brown, JB Horns). On marimba he has played as a soloist, as well as playing onstage in the Exeter Northcott’s production of Macbeth (2007) and Theatre Alibi’s Cobbo (2009). On drum kit, Nick has toured with the male voice choir Only Men Aloud!, played two seasons with Qdos Pantomimes; and plays for Blackhawk Big Band and several small jazz combos. In 2008 he spent a month in Havana researching Cuban music and studying Cuban percussion with local master Alejandro Mayor, and now runs the salsa band Fiesta Resistànce. Nick also plays dumbek, riq, bodhran, tabla, jazz guitar and tres Cubano.
Nick studied at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, graduating in 2007 with a first class honours degree in classical percussion and timpani. During his studies he travelled to Lady Susana Walton’s estate on Ischia, Italy as the percussionist in Walton’s Façade, and in his final year he was awarded the Ernest and Doris Haigh Memorial Award for “excellence, achievement and commitment to studies”.