SHORT BIOGRAPHY (300 words)
Eric Nathan (b. 1983) has been described as writing music that is “as diverse as it is arresting,” with a “constant vein of ingenuity and expressive depth (San Francisco Chronicle) and a marvel of musical logic” (Boston Classical Review). Nathan has written extensively for orchestra, most notably three commissions from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, including the space of a door, released on Naxos, and Concerto for Orchestra, which opened the BSO’s 2019–20 season under Andris Nelsons. His orchestral work Opening, co-commissioned by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation, received a nationally broadcast premiere on PBS with Ken-David Masur. His recent flute concerto, The Seas Between Us, was commissioned by a consortium of five orchestras in the U.S. and México for flutist Alejandro Escuer.
Nathan has received additional commissions from the New York Philharmonic, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Barlow Endowment, and Fromm Music Foundation. His music has been presented at the New York Philharmonic Biennials, Tanglewood, Aspen, Aldeburgh, and Cabrillo festivals, and the Library of Congress. A recipient of the Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, he has also received a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as fellowships from MacDowell, Civitella Ranieri, Copland House, and Yaddo.
Nathan’s two-CD set Missing Words (New Focus Recordings, 2022), praised as “brilliantly original” (Musical America), was recently presented as a complete cycle by Collage New Music and conductor Anna Handler in Boston. A composer portrait at Yellow Barn and recordings with Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Chelsea Music Festival have further highlighted his work, including an upcoming Orchid Classics release of his two Double Concertos.
Nathan is Artistic Director of Collage New Music in Boston and Associate Professor of Music at Brown University. He previously served as Composer-in-Residence of the New England Philharmonic for six seasons. He holds degrees from Cornell, Indiana University, and Yale. His compositions are published by Just a Theory Press. Learn more at www.ericnathanmusic.com.
Updated as of 7/8/2025