Nathan Southwick

Nathan Southwick’s passion for violin playing began at age 16, when he first heard the Utah Symphony. Currently pursuing a Master’s of Music Degree from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he is the recipient of a Teaching Assistant Fellowship, Nathan is active on many musical fronts.

An avid chamber musician, he has been a participant in master classes with such acclaimed groups as the Shanghai Quartet, the Cypress String Quartet, the Claremont Trio, the Carducci Quartet, the Emerson Quartet, and the Jerusalem Quartet, alongside regular coachings from the Fry Street Quartet. On both solo and chamber music literature, Nathan has had the opportunity to have classes with artist pedagogues Amit Peled, Igor Ozim, Felicia Moye, Michelle LaCourse, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Menahem Pressler, Philip Setzer, Brant Bayless, and Annie Chalex-Boyle. Eagerly engaging in new opportunities, Nathan founded “Collegium Musicum,” an early music chamber orchestra specializing in historically informed performance, now the bona fide Performance Practice Institute offered at Utah State University, his alma mater. He has also toured with the USU Chamber Singers as obligato soloist throughout northern Italy. On the other end of the musical spectrum, Nathan has commissioned new works, including works by composers Noah Smith and Aaron Latina.

In 2012, he won the Utah State University Concerto Competition and performed with both the Utah State Symphony and New American Philharmonic. He has also held multiple leadership roles in many Symphonies, including Concertmaster of the USU Symphony and the Hot Springs Festival Chamber Orchestra.

Academics and teaching are also a priority. Nathan is a Presidential Scholar, recipient of the Presser Award, an Eccles Scholar, an URCO Grant recipient and was a selected Hesse Scholar at the Aldeburgh Festival in Suffolk, England in 2012. An experienced teacher, Nathan has been teaching students at varying levels and ages for over six years. He maintains a large private studio as well as teaching Music Performance and Music Education students at the University of Colorado Boulder. He has also coached and taught sectionals for both the Utah Youth Symphony and the Lincoln Youth Symphony.

Nathan holds a Bachelor’s of Music degree from Utah State University where he studied with violinist Rebecca McFaul of the Fry Street Quartet. He also holds a Certificate from the Kärntner Landeskonservatorium in Carinthia, Austria. As an exchange student in 2010, he performed with the Kammerorchester Kärntner and the Konservatorium Philharmoniker on viola, and studied with pedagogue Brian Finlayson. He currently studies with Charles Wetherbee.