Henry Nicholson junior made his first public appearance in 1836, when he took his place with his father’s Duke of Rutland’s Band for a concert held on the Wharf Street Cricket Ground. From an early age Henry showed his musical talent both as a player and a composer, writing, in celebration of the Queen’s visit to the town in 1843, a march
that was later to be adapted as the Regimental March of the
Leicestershire Yeomanry Cavalry.

In 1844, the year that Henry joined Jullien’s famous orchestra in London, he promoted the first of what were to become annual concerts in Leicester. These concerts, which became a tradition that lasted for almost half a century brought many famous musicians to the town including the singer Adelina Patti and Charles Hallé, whose piano playing on his first visit to the town in 1868 caused such a sensation.

Two years later Henry played in the first English performance of Mendelssohn’s
Elijah at Birmingham Town Hall. Conducted by the composer, Nicholson used the opportunity to get the maestro to sign his flute case. He continued this custom, collecting many famous musicians' autographs over the next half century, including, on his visit to Leicester in 1903, that of the American ‘March King’, John Philip Sousa, who signed
just below the name of Kubelik. Sadly the case is now lost.