A native of Louisville, KY, Nicholas Drake began his musical studies on the piano before switching his emphasis to composition as an undergraduate. He earned a B.A. in philosophy from Centre College in 2001 where he studied composition with Laurence Bitensky. Drake earned the Master of Music degree in composition from the University of Louisville in 2007 where he studied with Marc Satterwhite and Paul Brink and was a recipient of the Warren Babb Scholarship, a Graduate Dean's Citation and the Alice Eaves Barns Award.

Drake composes and arranges music for chamber ensembles, orchestra, and electronic media. Recently, his music has been performed at the Universiity of Louisville's annual New Music Festival, earsight, Electronic Music Midwest, and the SCI National Conference. In 2002, his Movement for String Quartet (2000) was among the winners of the first annual Orpheus Alliance Composition Competition sponsored by the Associated Colleges of the South. His Gambado Fanfare (2006) was described by music critic Andrew Adler as " . . . a terse, hurtling bit of fun . . . " Recent projects include a recording project with pianist Denine LeBlanc and the premiere of Meditation No. 1: Pebble in the Water with violinist Juan Carlos Ortega and pianist Adrienne Fontenot. 

Other compositional projects include a series of short teaching pieces for the piano in which the young performer is given a chance to explore some of the various techniques that have developed in music over the past several decades.