Nikolaus Brass was born in Lindau (Bodensee) in 1949. He studied composition with Peter Kiesewetter at the Musikhochschule in Munich, with Helmut Lachenmann in Hanover and with Frank Michael Beyer at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin. Between 1978 and 1986 he attended the Darmstadt Summer Courses where he met Morton Feldmann.
Since 1981, Brass has created a large number of compositions which have been performed at the Gaudeamus Music Festival in Utrecht (The Netherlands), the Donaueschinger Musiktagen, Musica Viva in Munich, Ultraschall Berlin, Eclat Stuttgart, Klangspuren Festival (Austria) and elsewhere.
World premieres of his works have been performed by orchestras including the SWR Symphony Orchestra and the SWR Vocal Ensemble Stuttgart, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra.
His work includes compositions for choir, orchestra and chamber music ensembles. In recent years Nikolaus Brass has increasingly devoted himself to stage projects. In 2012 the music theater production memory received its world premiere as part of the Municher Biennale. Since 2012 his scenic project Dialoghi d'amore IX - Orte für Musik has been performed in Düsseldorf, Munich and Dortmund as part of the collaborative work Das Innere des Äußeren. In 2014 his chamber music theatre Sommertag had his worldpremière during the Municher Biennale and 2016 there is the world premiere of the music theatre production Earth diver at the Ruhrtriennale.
Nikolaus Brass received numerous prizes and awards, including in 2009 the Music Prize of the city of Munich. He is a member of the Bavarian Academy of fine arts since 2014. His works are available on many CD recordings.