Brian Raphael Nabors

Composer Brian Raphael Nabors rose to prominence in the late 2010s with orchestral residences at the Detroit Symphony, the Nashville Symphony, and other groups. His music represents a unique fusion of African American vernacular genres, including R&B, jazz, and gospel, with contemporary classical influences. Nabors was born on April 10, 1991, in Birmingham, Alabama. He has written that his Southern upbringing brought him "deep-rooted musical ideals, many of which are rooted in spirituality." Nabors attended Samford University in Birmingham, where he played piano in the school's jazz ensemble and studied composition with Sarana Chou and piano with Kathryn Fouse. He earned support from the Alabama Symphony's Sound Investment Scholars Program, and after graduating, he won the Alabama Music Teachers Association Composition Competition with his work String Theory for violin and piano. Nabors went on to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, studying with Douglas Knehans, Ellen Ruth Harrison, and Miguel A. Roig-Francolí, and earning both master's and doctoral degrees. In 2020, he traveled on a Fulbright scholarship to Sydney, Australia, for studies at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music with composer Carl Vine. He continues to perform as a church musician and as a keyboardist in an R&B/neo-soul band as well as in classical music settings. Nabors' works have been performed by major American orchestras, including the Cincinnati, Detroit, and Nashville Symphonies, as well as at several national music education conferences. He has held orchestral residences, including as 2018-19 Composer-in-Residence with the Castle of Our Skins organization in Boston, a 2019 composer fellowship from the Detroit Symphony's American Composers' Orchestra Earshot program, and a 2019 composer fellowship with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra's Composer Lab. He has specialized not only in orchestral music but in chamber music for winds. Nabors was a grand prize winner in the Rapido! National Composition Contest, with such heavyweights as Jennifer Higdon, Robert Spano, and Michael Gandolfi among the judges. ~ James Manheim