Nikolas Barger currently serves as the Director of Sacred Music and Titular Organist of the St. Thomas Aquinas Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Through his work, he strives to inspire and uplift communities through the rich tradition of Sacred Music. Mr. Barger travels frequently throughout the United States and Europe as a guest organist, conductor, liturgist, and clinician, leading choirs and instrumental ensembles and sharing his expertise in Sacred Music at the secondary, collegiate, and professional levels.

Barger has worked as an organist and choral director throughout the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln including Sacred Heart, North American Martyrs, St. John the Apostle, Blessed Sacrament, and the Cathedral of the Risen Christ. However much of his career has been formed and built at St. Thomas. In 2017, he was hired as one of the first organists when the new church replaced the pre-existing chapel. Starting in 2019, Mr. Barger founded the Vox Cantus Choral Scholar ensemble, one of the first groups founded specifically for students to learn Gregorian Chant and Renaissance Polyphony.  In 2023, he founded the St. Thomas Aquinas Chamber Choir, a 16-voice choral ensemble focused on teaching Sacred Music at the University level.

In 2024, Mr. Barger was appointed as the Director of Sacred Music at St. Thomas and has since made it his mission to continue to grow the love and education of Sacred Music throughout the Diocese of Lincoln and beyond. Since his recent appointment, four new ensembles have taken shape, the Newman Choir, a vibrant ensemble, comprised of 56 voices, which serves as the premier SATB choral group for the Newman Center and sings for various liturgies across the Diocese of Lincoln. The St. Gregory the Great Schola Cantorum, the St. Cecilia String Orchestra, and Newman Brass.

Barger has conducted choirs and performed in many of the world's greatest performance venues and churches including, La Madeline in Paris, the St. Louis Cathedral, the abbey church of St. Hildegard von Bingen, la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, and other famous major cathedrals in Bordeaux, Monaco, Munich, Rouen, Paris, and other major churches including Mount St. Michel (Normandy, France), Lugano (Switzerland), and various Cathedrals,  and venues throughout the United States including the Basilica of St. Josaphat in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the National Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin, St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha, Nebraska, St. John Cantius (Chicago), the Basilica of Our Lady of Sorrows in Chicago and St. Francis Xavier, St. Vincent Ferrer, St. Jean Baptiste Church in New York. 

Barger currently studies choral conducting with Dr. Peter Eklund and organ under the direction of Dr. Christopher Marks at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Glenn Korff School of Music.

A passionate composer and arranger, Barger conducts many of his own sacred choral works and receives numerous commissions for new compositions each year, in particular his own publication of several hymn arrangements commonly in use by choirs throughout the United States. His dedication to preserving and educating others about Sacred Music in the Liturgy of the Roman Rite is evident in his involvement with several professional organizations, including the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association for Music Educators, the American Guild of Organists, the Church Music Association of America, the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, and the American Handel Society.