Bio

Nicholas Bissen is a strong advocate for student opportunity and success. He is the owner and operator of the Rose Street Saxophone Room, where his students perform in competitive recitals, place in All-State ensembles, and win concerto competitions, providing a variety of need for high achieving students. Nicholas has held faculty positions at Lone Star North Harris, the New England Music Camp, and Stephen F. Austin State University as adjunct professor. Nicholas has been featured as a chamber musician, recitalist, and concerto soloist. He has taught, performed, and commissioned new works as a former DACAMERA Young Artist. Nicholas currently teaches masterclasses and lessons at the Kinder High School for Performing and Visual Arts, and chamber music and masterclasses at the American Festival of the Arts. His private studio is based at the Rose Street Saxophone Room in Houston Texas, and at the Sienna cluster in Fort Bend ISD.

Nicholas’s teaching values lead him to frequently conduct and arrange for saxophone. His arrangement of Delibes’s “Flower Duet” is featured on the trio album by James Bunte, Nathan Nabb, and Hyun Ji Oh, “Jamnaji,” and is available through Murphy Music Press LLC. His edition of Fernande Decruck’s  Sonata in C# was performed by James Bunte at the opening concerto concert for the 2018 NASA Biennial conference in Cincinnati. Nicholas’s arrangements of Poulenc’s Sonata for Flute and Piano, and Decruck’s Sonata in C# have been performed by James Bunte at the inaugural Single Reed Summit in 2018, and at several recitals across Ohio, Texas and Missouri. Nicholas’s newest adaptation is Khachaturian’s Violin Concerto in D Minor for Alto Saxophone. He has several arrangements for soloists and large saxophone choir available for purchase. Nicholas uses his arranging skills to frequently create teaching resources. His self-published Saxophone Handbook is available through this website.

Nicholas received his BME from the University of Central Missouri, his MM from the University of Cincinnati, his Performance Certificate from Stephen F. Austin State University, and has received four years of additional instruction from the Frederick L. Hemke Saxophone Institute. These teachers respectively are, James Gai, James Bunte, Nathan Nabb, Frederick  Hemke, John Sampen, and Gail Levinsky.