Daphne Nichols began her piano studies as part of a musical family in her hometown of Machiasport, Maine.  At the age of 11, she performed with the Arcady Festival Orchestra on Maine Public Radio. She was the winner of the 2002 Ocy Downs Maine State Piano Prize and has performed on National Public Radio’s From The Top.  Ms. Nichols has played in master classes for Nelita True, Stanislav Ioudenitch, Marian Hahn, Gabriel Chodos, Jane Coop, and William Grant Nabore.

In 2005, Ms. Nichols graduated from the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, where she studied with Jonathan Bass in the New England Conservatory’s Preparatory Division.  She attended Northwestern University’s School of Music and in 2009 completed her Bachelor of Music under the tutelage of Barbara Lister-Sink at Salem College.  Ms. Nichols was the 2007 recipient of the Jean and Harvey Picker Senior Prize in the Maine Bay Chamber Concerts’ Young Stars Competition.  In the same year, she won first prize at the Anne Gannett Scholarship Competition for undergraduate music majors in Maine.  In 2009, she was one of two piano finalists for the North Carolina Symphony Concerto Competition.

Ms. Nichols currently lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.  She has performed for the West Side Civic Theater, Salem College Pierrettes, churches in Trinity and Winston-Salem, and as an accompanist for college and conservatory students.  She teaches at Music Can Change the World, a piano studio with scholarships for low-income children.