Nigel Osborne studied composition with Kenneth Leighton, his predecessor as Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University; with Egon Wellesz, the first pupil of Arnold Schoenberg; and with Witold Rudzinski. He also studied at the Polish Radio Experimental Studio, Warsaw.

Nigel Osborne was the winner of the Opera Prize of Radio Suisse Romande and Ville de Geneve, the Netherlands Gaudeamus Prize, the Radcliffe Award, the Koussevitzky Award of the Library of Congress, Washington and the British Composer Award for Inspiration.