Nathan Laube

Biography

A star among young classical musicians, concert organist Nathan J. Laube has quickly earned a place amongst the organ world’s elite performers. His brilliant playing, audience-friendly programming, and gracious demeanor have thrilled audiences and presenters across the United States and in Europe, and have earned high praise from both critics and peers alike.

A native of Chicago, Nathan began piano study at age five with Donna Fortney; he later studied organ with Dr. Elizabeth Naegele and piano and music theory with Dr. Louis Playford at the Chicago Academy for the Arts. He is a recent graduate of the renowned Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied organ with Alan Morrison and piano with Susan Starr, and at graduation received the Institute’s two highest awards, the Landis Award for Excellence in Academics and the Aldwell Award for Excellence in Musical Studies.

The recipient of the coveted William Fulbright Grant, Nathan is spending the 2010-2011 academic year studying with Michel Bouvard at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse as a candidate for the Prix de Spécialisé. The year will include study on some of France’s most venerable historic pipe organs in churches and cathedrals across the country, in addition to studying harpsichord and fortepiano with Yasuko Uyama-Bouvard and early music with Jan Willem Jansen.

Upcoming and recent performances by Mr. Laube include major venues in the United States and Europe. He was a featured artist for the 2010 national convention of the American Guild of Organists in Washington D.C., where his concert received an immediate standing ovation. He also completed a concert tour of England in the summer of 2010 which included celebrity recitals at Exeter Cathedral, Truro Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral, and All Souls Church, Langham Place in London. Nathan returns to the UK in the fall of 2010 to perform on the celebrity recital series at St. Michael’s Church, Cornhill in London on the historic and newly-restored instrument there. In 2011 he will perform at the Washington National Cathedral for the national convention of the Organ Historical Society.

At The Kimmel Center’s Verizon Hall (Philadelphia), Nathan has appeared as a solo recitalist, as organ soloist for the 2008 “Sing-Along Messiah,” and with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Maestros Charles Dutoit and Christoph Eschenbach. With the Philadelphia Orchestra, he traveled several times to Carnegie Hall, most notably to perform Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 8. Other celebrated venues in which Nathan has performed include Girard College Chapel (Philadelphia, PA); Jacoby Symphony Hall (Jacksonville, FL); Spivey Hall (Morrow, GA), a performance subsequently broadcast on Minnesota Public Radio’s Pipedreams; The Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park (San Diego, CA); the 2009 National Convention of the Organ Historical Society (Cleveland, OH); St. Bartholomew’s Church, and Trinity Church, Wall Street (NYC); Princeton University Chapel; The Fourth Presbyterian Church (Chicago, IL), Ocean Grove Auditorium (Ocean Grove, NJ), and the Franciscan Church and St. Nicholas Cathedral (Ljubljana, Slovenia), as the sole American organist at the International European Organ Festival held in 2004.

Recognition of Nathan’s talent is evidenced by First Place awards he has received from the prestigious National Albert Schweitzer Organ Competition in September 2004, and from the Chicago American Guild of Organists/Quimby Regional Competition for Young Organists in February 2007.

As a church musician, Nathan served as the first Organ Scholar at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church from 2006 to 2007, culminating in an extensive choir tour in South Africa. His previous positions include Organ Scholar at the historic St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Germantown, Philadelphia, PA, and Associate Organist at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ, Chicago, IL. In demand as an accompanist, he has worked with numerous chamber ensembles and choruses, notably the renowned Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia from 2005 to 2006 under the direction of Matthew Glandorf, and collaborations with violinist Jasmin Lin, oboist Jelena Dirks, and Chicago Symphony Orchestra principal trumpeter Chris Martin in acclaimed chamber music recitals in Chicago. He also served as organist for a weeklong choir-residency at the majestic Durham Cathedral, Durham, England.

Although Nathan’s vast repertoire spans the works of pre-Baroque to living composers, he has become known for his colorful and virtuoso transcriptions of orchestral works by Bach, Mahler, Rossini, and Strauss. As an Assistant Organist to Peter Richard Conte at the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ – the world’s largest and ultimate “transcription organ” – Nathan performed regularly on their daily recital schedule. In 2005 and 2009 he appeared on WRTI Radio’s broadcast of “The Wanamaker Organ Hour” playing many of his original transcriptions.

Nathan’s other interests include medieval and modern architecture, gardening, international travel, exotic cuisine and cooking, as well as sketching and drawing.

Revised October 2010