Biography

Recently appointed Director of the Entrepreneurship Center for Music at the University of Colorado-Boulder, Jeffrey Nytch has built a diverse career as a composer, teacher, performer, and arts administrator. For 15 years he has continually created fresh ways to support and nurture that career, whether it be through developing commissioning opportunities, establishing residencies with community organizations, or building relationships with patrons. He has also run a small business, helped found a non-profit service organization in Houston, performed a wide range of repertoire as a vocalist, and served five years as Managing Director of The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble ( PNME ), one of the nation s premiere new music ensembles.

A native of Vestal, New York, Nytch completed a bachelors degree at Franklin and Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), studying with John Carbon, and earned Masters and Doctoral degrees in composition from the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University (Houston), under the guidance of Composer-in-Residence Paul Cooper. He has also studied with Donald Erb at Gunther Schuller's Schweitzer Institute of Music in Sandpoint, Idaho.

Hailed by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as "both impressive and satisfying," Nytch s music comprises a wide range of works that have been performed at venues throughout the United States and Europe, including Lincoln Center, the Soho Arts Festival, The Festival at Sandpoint, the Luzerne Chamber Music Festival, the Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition, and the Breckenridge Music Festival. His compositions have been performed by such artists as Richard Stoltzman (clarinet), Ann Labounsky (organ), the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Ahn Trio, the National Repertory Orchestra, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Binghamton Philharmonic, and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. Nytch has received numerous grants, awards and commissions, including First Prize in the American Festival for the Arts American Composers' Competition, a Creative Artist Grant from the Cultural Arts Council of Houston, and awards from ASCAP, the Ithaca College Choral Composition Competition, The Morton Gould Composers' Competition, "Meet the Composer," the American Music Center and the Mellon Foundation. Nytch s music has been recorded by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Black, the Seattle Symphony with Richard Stoltzman and conductor Gerard Schwarz, and by George Manahan and the New York Chamber Symphony.

During his tenure with The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Nytch partnered with Artistic Director Kevin Noe to introduce an innovative new approach to presenting contemporary chamber music, incorporating movement, theatrical lighting, spoken word, video, and costumes to create a unique  theater of music. The new format resulted in a 600% increase in attendance in five years, as well as a doubling of the organization s budget. He still serves on the Board of Directors as Vice President of Artistic Development. Since leaving PNME, Nytch has held a variety of teaching posts, including Artist Instructor at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music and Visiting Assistant Professor at Franklin & Marshall College.

In addition to composing and teaching, Nytch is in frequent demand as a countertenor soloist. He serves as Artist-in-Residence at Pittsburgh s historic Shadyside Presbyterian Church, where he fills the roles of soloist, chorister and composer. As a narrator and voice artist he has made appearances with The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Pittsburgh Arts and Letters, and numerous recitals. In his off time Jeff enjoys gardening, bowling, hiking, cross-country skiing, and fine food and wine.

Critics say

  …and the wind spoke

“The work did more than merely amalgamate jazz. modernist and neo-classic elements. The whole was greater than even the cube of the parts, creating a distinct, fluent compositional language. … The gradual building of energy and triumphant release resulted in a rhapsodic piece in which the listener was not only carried along but warmly embraced by the titular wind.” 
Eric Haines, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

“The new piece possesses a clear emotional arch, proceeding from pain and frustration to weakness before regaining energy and strength and finally reaching healthy lyricism. [This] is appealingly energetic music that not only moves but gets somewhere. Nytch evokes the ancient image of the wind as a source of renewal and rebirth. The metrically varied music has an appealingly jazzy feel in harmonies, lines and rhythmic liveliness.”
Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 

Silences

 “The PNME-commissioned work is a poignant, shimmering setting of poems by C.E. Cooper.”
Eric Haines, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

“Nytch’s genuine lyrical gifts make his vocal settings especially effective. Silences is powerful beyond lyricism, with faster interplay of music shaped with compelling individuality.”
Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review 

Kaleidoscopes

 “The work contained broad, arching melodies, and was consistently enjoyable.”
Charles Ward, Houston Chronicle

 “A rich and vital piece which displays a sophisticated use of line and harmonic texture to convey a wide range of emotional states.”
The New Music Connoisseur  

Personal Affects

“Nytch's combination of the three poems into a single work created an austere narrative arc of self-discovery and personal reconciliation.”
Burkhardt Reiter, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 

Lyric Suite

 “This is an appealing work, in which the lyricism of the viola part suggested the poet’s own lilting voice and its spare piano writing perfectly evoked Sandburg’s moodiness.”
Travis Rivers, Spokane (Wash) Spokesman Review

Chamber Concerto

“Nytch’s work was both impressive and satisfying. Works such as this are creating hope for the future of classical music.”
Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette