Brian Raphael Nabors

Brian Raphael Nabors is a composer of emotionally enriching music that tells exciting narratives with its vibrant themes and colorful harmonic language.

Nabors’ music has been performed by the Boston, Atlanta, Nashville, Cincinnati, Detroit, Fort Worth and Munich symphonies, as well as the Minnesota Orchestra, ROCO, American Youth Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic and Chineke!, among other ensembles. His music has been performed at many venues and events internationally, including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Helsinki Festival and Lucerne Festival. In the U.S., it has been heard at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference (TMEA), Midwest Composers Symposium, Texas Flute Society Festival, International Horn Symposium, International Double Reed Society Conference (IDRS), International Clarinet Association Clarinet Fest, National Orchestral Institute (NOI), Aspen Music Festival and Tanglewood Music Festival. His music has also been performed by artists such as the Atlanta Chamber Players, Apollo Chamber Players, Dallas’ Voices of Change, Boston Musica Viva, and Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings. His work has been featured in masterclasses with composers such as William Bolcom, John Harbison and Lowell Liebermann.

With an eclectic musical palate and crafty compositional technique to match, Nabors’ music draws from combinations of jazz funk, R&B and Gospel with the modern flair of contemporary classical music. This interesting blend of sound worlds is one that continues to craft his unique musical voice.

Recent highlights include a composition fellowship at the Tanglewood Music Center summer 2021; the 2021 Seikilos Focus Fellowship at Air SFI; and an “All-Ohio” String Quartet Project in partnership with the Well, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Cincinnati and Columbus symphony orchestras.

Organizations and ensembles featuring his music in 2024 and 2025 include Carnegie Hall, Aspen Music Festival, Ravinia Festival, Clarinet Fest 2024, Seattle Symphony, Kansas City Symphony, San Antonio Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic, Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Chineke! Orchestra European Tour, Delaware Symphony, Alabama Symphony, The Black Iris Project, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Musiqa Houston and the Well.

A charming southern upbringing exposed Nabors to many deep-rooted musical ideals, many of which are rooted in spirituality; one of the main principles that inspires Nabors’ music. Much of his music deals with new reflections on life, nature and the human condition. As a pianist, he is proficient in many styles and has performed in several groups, functioning as a church musician, keyboardist in a R&B/Neo Soul band, and classical artist. Having a hand in several genres plays a large role in the type of sound spaces that Nabors creates. It has also broadened his creative and technical facility in realizing his compositional ideas.  

He was named the 2018-19 composer in residence with the Castle of Our Skins in Boston; a 2019 composer fellow in the American Composers Orchestra’s Earshot program with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra; a 2019 composer fellow with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra’s Composer Lab; and a 2019 cycle five grand prize winner of the Rapido! National Composition Contest by judges Robert Spano, Jennifer Higdon and Michael Gandolfi. Nabors is also a 2020 Fulbright scholarship recipient to Sydney, Australia, studying with composer Carl Vine at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.