A proper musical training is not just for the three years or so you’re at university, it’s for life. From an early age Nick Sanders trained as a classical musician, keeping his hand in with a variety of extracurricular projects. However, he remained in his day job as a commercial director in the airline industry.
But Nick’s enduring passion for music, and a burgeoning interest in musical theatre, possibly sparked by listening to the soundtrack to Oklahoma with his parents, was always playing in the background. With his then wife also involved in amateur theatre, he inevitably had one ear turned towards what was happening on the scene. And one beautiful morning, things started to go his way. A Manchester-based am-dram company needed a Musical Director. Nick didn’t need a second invitation to return to his first love, and 12 years later he finally brought the curtain down on his corporate life, returning to university to study for a Master’s in Musical Performance: “Leaving my life behind as a Commercial Director was the best career move ever.”
The first show he directed was Stephen Schwartz’s 1971 musical Godspell, largely based on the Gospel of Matthew. With his classical, rather than musical theatre, training, he gladly admits it wasn’t all plain sailing:
“It was my first time in front of a cast and company, getting them to engage in two-hour rehearsals. Very much like teaching, it can be a lonely place at times.”
Nick embraced the challenge, though, and he found himself in harmony with the life of the musician. The high notes of his showreel include taking his trusty euphonium around the world with the world famous Besses o’ th’ Barn Brass Band, appearing on radio and TV broadcasts, and playing in pretty much every major venue and music festival in the UK. He also played the Cambridge Folk Festival with his own band, Loose Chippings.
But it’s the social and emotional dividends from musically directing over 84 – yes, 84 – musicals that he treasures the most:
“The hundreds of thousands of people I’ve entertained, and most importantly, the lifelong friendships I’ve made through my music making.”
And now he’s chosen to pass on some of that invaluable experience to actual students of the performing arts, aka the next generation:
“Becoming a lecturer in 2008 has given me the opportunity to shape many students lives. The importance of having students who can express themselves creatively is without doubt. Their collective success in becoming multi-skilled performers, entrepreneurs, teachers, is why I teach.”
Citing The Book of Mormon, co-created by South Park’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone, as the best musical of the last decade, he’s also following his own academic research path, as “a passionate advocate for new writing”. Students are already benefiting. Nick’s vision for the course includes “a page-to-stage concept, giving composers and librettists an outlet for their work to be workshopped and heard. It’s a great opportunity to bring in industry experts to advise and inform our students on current industry practice and trends.”
Since staging the first ever performance of The Girl in the Hat in 2022, our students have continued to premiere musicals.
In 2024, our students stole the show performing The Forty Elephants, based on London’s legendary all-woman Victorian crime ring, and in 2025 Flip‘s skateboarding subject matter challenged our set designers’ half-pipe building skills.
He’s also enthusiastic about where students take their skills, leading on graduate employment for performing arts at the University, but also the value they put on those skills:
“Musical Theatre training offers our students so many transferable skills. Our students are excellent communicators, and the employability module centres on students developing portfolio careers so if students don’t go on to professional careers in musical theatre it definitely cannot be looked upon as failure.”
He would cite himself as a perfect example of how to value abilities that are useful in almost any social circumstance and to have patience – he’s now in sight of a century of productions.
But, perhaps most importantly, Nick understands how vital it is to keep flexing those skills, even – especially – in an industry that has been hit harder than most in recent times.
Because people love – need – to be entertained, provoked, transported, and we need our creative and talented young people now more than ever.
Find out more about Musical Theatre at Edge Hill University
March 10, 2025
