title: Nicolai (surname)
text: # Nicolai (surname)
  
  Nicolai is a Frisian (north part of Holland) surname, and may refer to:
  
  ## In music
  
  * Philipp Nicolai (1556–1608), German Lutheran pastor, poet, and composer
  * Carl Otto Ehrenfried Nicolai (1810 – 1849) German composer, conductor, and founder of the Vienna Philharmonic
  * Bruno Nicolai (1926–1991), Italian film music composer, orchestra director, and musical editor
  * Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto; born 1965), German sound artist
  
  ## In literature
  
  * Christoph Friedrich Nicolai (1733–1811), German writer and bookseller
  
  ## In other fields
  
  * Anton Nicolai (died 1474), Polish Roman Catholic bishop
  * Ernst Anton Nicolai (1722–1802), German physician and chemist
  * Ernst August Nicolai (1800–1875), German physician and naturalist
  * Friedrich Bernhard Gottfried Nicolai (1793–1846), German astronomer
  * Hermann Nicolai (born 1952), German theoretical physicist
  * Norica Nicolai (born 1958), Romanian lawyer and politician
  * William S. Nicolai (born ?), U.S. inventor and entrepreneur
  