Buffalo-based composer Nathan Heidelberger (b. 1987, Cortlandt Manor, NY) focuses on writing chamber and vocal music. His pieces range in character from the uncannily beautiful to the unrelentingly didactic. Recent musical preoccupations have included lists and repetition, text, distance and ephemerality, and the distortion of traditional musical objects. Nathan received his PhD, with distinction, from the University at Buffalo. He also holds undergraduate degrees in Composition and English from Oberlin College and Conservatory, where he was awarded the Walter E. Aschaffenburg Composition Prize. His primary teachers have included David Felder, Lewis Nielson, and Richard Carrick.
Nathan was a composition fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in summer of 2013 and at the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2012. He has also participated in the Copland House CULTIVATE Institute, June in Buffalo, and a residency at the Banff Centre. His music has been performed by such groups as Ensemble Court Circuit, Ensemble Linea, the Mivos Quartet, the New Fromm Players, the Nouveau Classical Project, and the Slee Sinfonietta. As the first composer-in-residence for the Netherlands-based Oerknal Ensemble, Nathan was the subject of their Lunatics portrait concert in June 2014. His composition Of songs for soprano and string quartet was awarded the 2010 Frank Robert Abel Prize from the University of Louisville. In 2015, he was granted a Special Award by the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music to support the composition of a new solo piece for pianist Daniel Walden.
Sometimes a pianist and a horn player, Nathan focuses on performing the contemporary repertoire. He is a founding member of Wooden Cities, an ensemble committed to introducing new music to audiences throughout Western New York. As an undergrad, he worked closely with Helmut Lachenmann during the composer’s 2008 residency at Oberlin to prepare his solo piano works Echo Andante and Ein Kinderspiel.