Nick Haywood

With the establishment of the Bachelor of Australian Popular Music course at NMIT in 2007, he became Head of Program/Senior Lecturer in the Department of Music at NMIT. He also teaches privately, and conducts master classes at festivals and institutions around Australia and internationally.

A 2005 agreement between NMIT and the Beijing Midi School of Music, a private music school in Beijing focussing on modern music genres, resulted in Haywood establishing a ten-week music program and teaching the Advanced Diploma of Music Performance to students in Beijing, as well as the opportunity to perform in various Beijing Jazz clubs. He was one of the prominent performers at the 2005 Beijing Jazz Festival.

A grant from the Alan C. Rose Memorial Project in 2004 enabled Haywood to study in New York City with American jazz bassists Gary Peacock and Rufus Reid. Later that year he completed a Master of Music Performance degree at the Victorian College of the Arts.

An anniversary concert of John Sangster's Lord of the Rings at the Malvern Town Hall in 2003 also featured Haywood with many of the original musicians.

The Melbourne International Arts Festival has provided several opportunities to showcase Haywood's composing and performing talents. In 2001 he performed with his band Dodge in the Spiegeltent.

Haywood, Eugene Ball, and Andrea Keller were the nucleus of the eleven piece Bennetts Lane Big Band which was formed in 2001. The band has been described by the National Library of Australia as "Melbourne's premier large contemporary jazz ensemble" and "comprised of some of Australia's most celebrated improvisers and composers."'

Haywood has been a music lecturer in the Performing Arts Department at Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT) since 2001.

In 1999 Haywood was nominated for two ARIA Music Awards: for Best Jazz Recording for Sudden in a Shaft of Sunlight by Browne-Haywood-Stevens and Best Adult Contemporary for Beat Club by The Black Sorrows.

In his mid 20s he enrolled in a Diploma of Music course at the Victorian College of the Arts and graduated in 1988.

Born in 1961, Haywood first started playing an electric bass guitar at eight years of age but did not consider undertaking a career as a professional musician. In 1976 he started playing double bass. After finishing school he worked in a brewery and a tin mine.