Meet Baltimore-based Artist Nicholas A. Higgins
Nicholas A. Higgins is a teacher, musician, and writer based in Baltimore. He’s the author of a novel, The Explorers, and a picture book, The Campesino’s Dream. He released his debut album, Fireheart, on Pentecost Sunday 2025. You can find out more on his website and on his Instagram and YouTube channel.
CATHOLIC ARTIST CONNECTION: Where are you from originally, and what brought you to your current city?
NICHOLAS A. HIGGINS: I am originally from Florida. I moved to Baltimore to teach Spanish and Theology at an all-boys Catholic high school. As a teacher, I am able to use breaks to focus on my music and other creative projects.
How do you understand your vocation as a Catholic artist?
Some have told me I would be good at singing “secular” music, but I intentionally only do Christian/Catholic events because I have been told I have the charism of music—a gift meant for others to help them pray and lead them to Christ.
Where have you found support in the Church for your vocation as an artist?
I regularly lead worship at Sunday Mass and other Church events.
Where in your city do you regularly find spiritual fulfillment?
After I was unable to truly find a consistent spiritual community in Baltimore, I went on a Steubenville Adult Conference called “Power and Purpose” and was inspired to start a young adult group at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Ellicott City, MD (greater Baltimore area). Thanks be to God, the group has been thriving including a weekly Bible study, a weekly men's group, and bi-monthly adoration where I lead praise and worship. Our parish felt like a good fit for me especially because of our pastor and our music team. For instance, several musicians lead worship for Mass and for extended adoration services at our parish in the same contemporary style as I lead. We love to take the rich language of ancient hymns and add a contemporary feel with guitar or piano. We play new, popular songs written in the past decade (of course with lyrics that are appropriate for the Mass) that the congregation loves to sing along to. I have developed a leadership team with my young adult group and am beginning to form them in being open to the Holy Spirit, finding their charisms, and “new” (new to them) styles of prayer such praying over others (laying on of hands).
What is your daily spiritual practice?
My primary spiritual practices are daily Mass and personal prayer time especially in the mornings. I got into my faith at 14 years old after coming to recognize the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Over twenty years later, His presence in the Eucharist is still the One that brings true peace and joy. Daily Mass is the rock of my prayer life. I also commit to 30 minutes of personal prayer time every morning, just sitting with the Lord and a cup of coffee. I learned this practice while serving as a missionary in Honduras, Central America. I am an active member of the Catholic missionary community Missioners of Christ based in Honduras. I have been going for 15 years and visit every year. Much of my original artwork is inspired by my time serving as a full-time missionary in Honduras. I was especially formed in deepening my prayer life, encountering Christ in the poorest of the poor, and evangelization.
What is your daily artistic practice?
To learn guitar in college, I committed to playing 15–30 minutes a day. To write my novel, I committed to 15–30 minutes a day. Some days, inspiration strikes and you can go for hours, but other days when you don’t feel like it, the 15-minute commitment is essential.
Describe a recent day in which you were most completely living out your vocation as an artist.
What a beautiful question! Watching my debut album come to life and sharing it with others has been a true blessing as they share with me how it has blessed them. For instance, I remember writing “A Song for the King” in our mission house chapel in Honduras for a young Honduran friend that had just past away. I poured my heart out in song and few broken chords on the piano as the pounding rain and my tears flowed down. The same emotion returned years later as we recorded the song in the studio and I heard it come to life in a new way. Finally, after releasing the music video for it, someone who recently lost her little boy saw it was filmed in the church where his funeral was and shared how the song was a great blessing to her.