Nathan Laube


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Nathan Laube is a leading performer and pedagogue.  Mr. Laube is Associate Professor of Organ at the Eastman School of Music, as well as International Consultant in Organ Studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in the United Kingdom.  His extensive international recital career takes him continually to major concert venues and festivals around the world.  Known for his brilliant playing, gracious demeanor, and creative programming of repertoire spanning five centuries (including his own virtuoso transcriptions of orchestral works), Mr. Laube has earned high praise from critics and peers alike.

GRAMMY® Award-winning recording!

Mr. Laube’s recording of the Stephen Paulus Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra with the Nashville Symphony was awarded a GRAMMY® for Best Classical Compendium at the 58th annual awards ceremony in February 2016.   The celebrated release on the Naxos label features Mr. Laube as concerto soloist with Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero conducting the Nashville Symphony in a compendium of works by Stephen Paulus.

SOUTH HADLEY, MA (OHS 2015 National Convention)

“Nathan Laube, once a “rising star,” is now an international star, and his consummate musicianship is justifiably celebrated worldwide. How fortunate we are that he just happens to be an organist, too.”
The Tracker, Vol. 59, No 4 2015

 

NASHVILLE:  (Stephen Paulus Grand Concerto for Organ and Orchestra with the Nashville Symphony)

“[The Stephen Paulus] Grand Concerto for Organ (splendidly played by organist Nathan Laube) is aptly named.  This terrific three-movement work is positively brimming with big dramatic flourishes.  Laube engaged in animated lyrical exchanges with various orchestra principals in the opening movement, titled “Vivacious and spirited.”  He was just as effective in the second movement, called “Austere: foreboding,” which includes a gleaming quotation of the hymn “Come, Come Ye Saints.”   The finale, “Jubilant,” was a thrilling showpiece of oscillating organ chords (played on multiple manuals) and fleet-footed pedal passages that gave Laube an aerobic workout.  Laube played this music with effortless virtuosity.”
ArtsNash.com (October 2013)


SALT LAKE CITY 
 (Cathedral of the Madeleine, Sept 2013)

“Laube has the perfect blend of imposing technique and refined musicality. His interpretative skills are impressive as is his range of expressions. He is a very articulate and perceptive artist who brings depth and perspective to his performances and makes the music come alive.”
ReichelRecommends.com, September 2013

BOSTON:  (The Mother Church, July 2011)

“If Nathan Laube is any indication, the organ has a much brighter future than some would believe in this age of broadening definitions of church music. This young man is an unpretentious, attitude-free, and brilliant artist who, it would seem, has to be one of Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers:” if he hasn’t practiced for 10,000 hours yet, he certainly sounds as though he’s on his way to Gladwell’s benchmark.  His playing speaks for itself with lucid phrasing, uncanny use of solo and ensemble color, and perception and depth unusual in someone his age.  He also spoke about the music with great maturity, and half of Sunday evening’s program was music he had arranged for the organ.  No … flamboyance for this young artist: the music comes first.”

“Leading off with the Liszt Symphonic Poem from Les Preludes, ‘Poeme symphonique #3,’ Laube made the organ sound as though this music had been written for it rather than an orchestra. I have never heard so many gloriously beautiful sounds emerge from this magnificent instrument, and I’ve enjoyed some superb players there through the years …”

“… Flawless technique again made this music [the Chopin C-sharp minor Etude] sound perfect on the organ, and we went out into the night, grateful for a musician who at the tender age of twenty-three can play to this astounding standard, at the same time without a trace of shallowness or overwrought showmanship.  Don’t miss him the next time he’s in town!”
The Boston Musical Intelligencer, July 2011


Reviews from the AGO 2010 national convention held in Washington D.C.:

“The tour de force of his concert was his performance of Maurice Duruflé’s Suite pour Orgue, Op. 5.  His playing was flawless, inspired, and for want of a better word, transporting.”
The Diapason, January 2011

“Nathan Laube’s recital at National Presbyterian Church … provided undeniable evidence that he is clearly a “rising star” in our professional world.  Laube displayed impeccable technique, exceptional registrational creativity, and artistic skill beyond his years …”
“Likely many in the audience have experienced or performed Duruflé’s Suite many times in their lives, so expectations may have been common for all. Nathan Laube well fulfilled them, along with the desires of the composer, in a solid performance that brought both a standing ovation and the singing of ‘Happy Birthday, dear Nathan’ by the enthusiastic audience.”
The American Organist, October 2010


Photo by Joseph Routon