Overview
Nick Tipping is a compulsive music-lover. Although he has changed jobs a number of times in the course of his career, he's stayed close to the musical action his whole life. Born and raised in Wellington, he attended Victoria and Massey University, emerging with degrees in both music history and jazz performance. After a two-year stint studying in Las Vegas, and working in the city's vast entertainment machine, he returned to New Zealand in 2003. He spent the next decade lecturing in jazz at the New Zealand School of Music and the University of Auckland, including a 5-year stint running the jazz programme at the NZSM (where his students dubbed him "Captain Jazz"). As if that weren't enough to qualify him as a nerd for life, Nick graduated with a PhD in Musicology from Victoria and Massey Universities.
Although by day Nick is now a mild-mannered RNZ Concert presenter, by night he is still a dark and brooding jazz musician, who can be found peering out from behind his double bass whilst performing in bars all over the country. As a bass player he's left his mark on performances with musicians including Grammy winners Mike Stern, Kurt Elling, and Bob Mintzer, global heartthrobs Ronan Keating, Delta Goodrem and Chris de Burgh, and NZ's own Sir Howard Morrison, Nathan Haines, Mike Nock, and the NZSO. He continues to indulge his passions of both playing and talking about music of all kinds.