He
began studying piano at age 10 with Pam Keen, and later trained with
Irena Hramenkova at Southern Park Music School in Charlotte. At the
age of 17 he began private lessons in composition with Olga Harris
(Russian composer and last student of Aram Khachaturian).
Nathan Shirley attended Northwest School of the Arts in Charlotte, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston Salem, and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte until shortly after his 21st birthday when he left to study on his own.
Later
that same year Nathan Shirley's composition 'Music for Strings and
Marimba' was a winner in the 2002 Andrzej Panufnik International
Composers' Competition in Poland. In 2004 his piece 'Locorum Musica'
for string orchestra and flute was chosen in the 1st International
Garden Music Competition in Krakow, and in 2006 he served on the jury
of the same competition. Also in 2006, his composition 'In the
Distance' was awarded 1st place in the 2006 Orpheus Music Composition
Competition in Australia. In 2007 his piano piece ‘Cultus’ was
awarded in the Renee B. Fisher Composer Awards in New Haven,
Connecticut.
Nathan Shirley has performed and conducted his orchestral, chamber, and solo music in the United States and Europe, and has given guest lectures at various universities.
His
influences are diverse, with Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, Schubert,
Chopin, Schumann, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Bartok,
Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and beyond. Non-classical influences include
both western and non-western folk, jazz, and experimental popular
music. Nathan Shirley's own style is much more cross-cultural than it is nationalistic.
He has taught piano to over 60 students, instructed many in composition, and has written much for children. He has composed for film, animation, and theater, but composing for the concert hall is his true passion. In 2005 he began accepting commissions for new works and has since written for musicians around the globe. Nathan Shirley currently lives in the Appalachian Mountains with his wife and children.
Nathan Shirley earns much of his living as a freelance composer and is always accepting new music commissions, from simple to virtuosic, and for most any instrumentation, from solo to symphonic. He is also available as a concert pianist, performing his own original music.