Nathan Shields

Nathan Shields

Fellow: Awarded 2022
Field of Study: Music Composition

Competition: US & Canada

Nathan Shields’s music has been praised for its “elusive luminance” (Washington Post), and described as “affecting…alternately kinetic and reflective” (New York Times). He has been commissioned by Tanglewood, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Fromm Foundation (for Bridget Kibbey and Jay Campbell), American Composers Forum (for the JACK Quartet), New York New Music Ensemble, and BMI, and performed by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, Mendelssohn Academy Orchestra, Jupiter String Quartet, Music from Copland House, Decoda, and the Horszowski Trio, among others. His work has been recognized with awards and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Tanglewood, Yaddo, Copland House, Juilliard, The Presser Foundation, BMI, and ASCAP.

Nathan earned his doctorate in composition from the Juilliard School, where he also served on the music history faculty. An active teacher and critic, he’s currently associate faculty at the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research, and has written for The Baffler, Bookforum, Mosaic, and other publications. His Guggenheim project, a new work for the Jupiter String Quartet, draws on the paintings of Caravaggio to examine the subject of contemporary political and religious violence.

Photo Credit: Hannah Shields

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