Biography
Composer Eric Nathan, an innovative creator whose stylistically varied output has drawn notice across the globe, also maintains a strong profile as an instructor. Born in New York in 1983, he completed a diploma at the Juilliard School’s Pre-College Division under Ira Taxin. At Yale University he pursued undergraduate studies in composition with Kathryn Alexander, John Halle, and Matthew Suttor while training on trumpet with Allan Dean. He continued at Indiana University for a master’s degree, working principally with Claude Baker and Sven-David Sandström. Doctoral work at Cornell University brought him into contact with Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra, and Kevin Ernste, and during this period he received composition fellowships to the Tanglewood, Aspen, and Aldeburgh Festivals as well as the Composers Conference. His profile rose further with the Rome Prize Fellowship awarded in 2013 and a Guggenheim Fellowship the next year.
Nathan’s earliest commercial appearance dates to 2008, when trumpeter John Adler included the electronic-accompanied piece Cantus on the album Confronting Inertia. In 2013 he served as composer-in-residence for both New York’s Chelsea Music Festival and Italy’s Chamber Music Campania. The 2015 release Multitude, Solitude: Eric Nathan presented several of his compositions. Major ensembles that have programmed his orchestral and chamber scores include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic. Festival engagements have encompassed the New York Philharmonic Biennials of 2014 and 2016, the Aldeburgh Music Festival, and the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. Following a visiting assistant professorship at Williams College in 2014–2015, Nathan joined the composition and theory faculty at Brown University. His 2014 work Missing Words, which sets imaginary German terms drawn from Ben Schott’s Schottenfreude: German Words for the Human Condition, received a complete recording in 2022 on the New Focus album Eric Nathan: Missing Words. By early 2022 roughly twenty of his pieces had appeared on disc.
Nathan’s earliest commercial appearance dates to 2008, when trumpeter John Adler included the electronic-accompanied piece Cantus on the album Confronting Inertia. In 2013 he served as composer-in-residence for both New York’s Chelsea Music Festival and Italy’s Chamber Music Campania. The 2015 release Multitude, Solitude: Eric Nathan presented several of his compositions. Major ensembles that have programmed his orchestral and chamber scores include the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berlin Philharmonic. Festival engagements have encompassed the New York Philharmonic Biennials of 2014 and 2016, the Aldeburgh Music Festival, and the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music. Following a visiting assistant professorship at Williams College in 2014–2015, Nathan joined the composition and theory faculty at Brown University. His 2014 work Missing Words, which sets imaginary German terms drawn from Ben Schott’s Schottenfreude: German Words for the Human Condition, received a complete recording in 2022 on the New Focus album Eric Nathan: Missing Words. By early 2022 roughly twenty of his pieces had appeared on disc.
Singles
