Nicholas Tomkin studied viola at the Victorian College of the Arts. During his studies he toured nationally and internationally with the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra and the Australian Youth Orchestra.

Nicholas continued his studies in Austria at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik with Thomas Kakuska of the Alban Berg Quartet and had regular chamber music lessons with Eric Höbart of Quatuor Mosaïques and master classes with Ilse Wincor of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Nicholas also performed regularly in concerts, broadcasts and international tours with the Vienna Volksoper Orchestra, the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna and the Haydn Academy.

In 1997 Nicholas moved to Brisbane to take up a full-time position with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.

He has been a return performer at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan. He enjoys regular invitations to perform, record and tour with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. This has included tours domestically and to Korea and Japan. He has performed with chamber ensembles as part of the 4MBS Classic Cruises in 2015 and 2019.

Nicholas has a special interest in historical performance practice and plays baroque viola with the Badinerie Players.