Nicholas Vasallo


Nicholas Roy Vasallo is an American composer. In 1997, Vasallo graduated from Monte Vista High School in Danville, California, where he began his musical career as an electric guitarist and vocalist in a hardcore band called Y.F.H.. He has been credited as being the father of a genre of extreme metal called deathcore. Vasallo has since evolved from a rock musician into an award-winning composer and professor of music. He is best known for his compositions combining heavy metal sounds and aesthetics with experimental classical techniques. He has released three albums containing his compositions with different independent labels. His music is published by Santa Barbara Music Publishers and released by Innova Recordings. Vasallo is of Filipino and Taiwanese descent.

Biography

Vasallo graduated from Diablo Valley College with an AA in music industry studies in 2003, and California State University, East Bay with a BA in music composition in 2007. As a Chancellor's Fellow at University of California, Santa Cruz, Vasallo completed his MA in 2009 and subsequently went on to finish his DMA in 2011 as a President's Fellow. His teachers included David Evan Jones, Paul Nauert, David Cope, Hi-Kyung Kim, Frank La Rocca, Jeffrey Miller, Rafael Hernandez, Ken Ueno, and Francois Rose.
He was an assistant professor at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona; lecturer at California State University, East Bay, Gavilan College, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Los Medanos College. Vasallo is the director of music industry studies at Diablo Valley College. Vasallo is also a passionate martial artist, he practices Jiu Jitsu and teaches Muay Thai Kickboxing at Danville Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling, and Kickboxing. He is also the creator and head instructor of the Muay Thai program at Global Martial Arts University.
;Career
As a composer, Vasallo's work has encompassed a variety of genres and projects. Most notably with his extreme metal band Oblivion, deathgrind band Antagony, film music career, and concert music works. Polystylism or Eclecticism has been linked to his compositions which range from electronic, electroacoustic, orchestral, chamber music, solo, choral, and various instrumentations utilizing the overdriven sound of electric guitar. His compositional approach involves mixing disparate elements from Extreme Metal to Taiko, Experimental, Spectral Music, Electronic Music, Algorithmic Music, and various 21st-century compositional techniques. Vasallo is a recipient of the 2010/2011 President's $21k Dissertation-Year Fellowship, the first Arts student to ever receive the honor.
His music has been performed internationally by groups such as Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea, Del Sol String Quartet, San Francisco Choral Artists, Atlanta Schola Cantorum, and Watsonville Taiko. Vasallo models his musical structures on extra-musical phenomenon, including pre-constructed narrative events either created on his own or appropriated. He describes musical ideas and instruments as "complex and surprising characters that exist in reality or imagination." Vasallo's ongoing goal is to hybridize extreme metal with modern classical music. He often designs sound worlds using acoustic instruments with electronic/digital manipulations.
As a performer, Vasallo is active as an bassist and extreme metal vocalist. He is currently the lead vocalist and songwriter for the extreme metal band Oblivion.

Awards

;Studio albums
YearAlbum details
2007The Burning
  • Released: 2007
  • Label: Ars Nova Classics
2011let the machines do it for us
  • Released: 2011
  • Label: Kunaki
    • 2012Monuments Emerge
  • Released: 2012
  • Label: Innova Recordings