Biography

Nathaniel Efthimiou is an emerging American conductor recognized for his versatility and connection with audiences. He is currently the Assistant Conductor of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School and an Assistant Professor of Music at Berklee College of Music. He is a three-time recipient of The Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Award and was recently selected by members of the Vienna Philharmonic as a recipient of the AAF/Faber Young Conductor Fellowship (formerly the Karajan Fellowship) at the Salzburg Festival. He was a semi-finalists in the 2nd Hong Kong International Conducting Competition 2023.

 

During his tenure at the Rhode Island Philharmonic, he has received critical acclaim for two last-minute appearances with the orchestra on subscription programs spanning the repertoire, including Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5, Florence Price’s Symphony No. 3, the East Coast premiere of Gabriela Lena Frank’s Haillí-Serenata, and Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F with Jon Kimura Parker. He has also led education programs that serve thousands of young people across the state of Rhode Island and southern Massachusetts. Nathaniel has conducted orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, as a quarter-finalist in the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition 2021, the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Rhode Island Philharmonic, Amarillo Symphony, musicians of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Additionally, he maintains an active guest conducting schedule.

 

Nathaniel is equally comfortable in the opera pit, and he is the recipient of the 2023 Elizabeth Buccheri Opera Residency program with Opera Southwest (Albuquerque, NM), where he conducted a performance of Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro. He has also worked on productions ranging from Debussy’s Pélleas et Mélisande, Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi, and Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. In October 2018, he led four performances of Tom Cipullo’s provocative operetta, After Life, at BU Opera Institute’s “Fringe Festival.”

 

As a passionate educator, he has worked with the New England Conservatory’s Summer Orchestra Institute, Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras, and served on a selection committee for the Anthony Quinn Foundation’s student scholarships. He has served as a guest conductor and lecturer with numerous colleges, including Boston University, where he presented a seminar on The Evolution from Student to Professional with Boston University’s doctoral conducting candidates. He also served as the Head of Instrumental Activities at Westminster Academy in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

As a former composer, Nathaniel is a passionate advocate for new music. He has been involved in bringing new works to life with the Susan and Ford Schumann Center for Composition Studies at the Aspen Music Festival, the BU Opera Institute, and Boston University Center for New Music. He studied composition with Joel Hoffman, David Ludwig, and David Davies, and his work has been featured in festivals such as the Atlantic Music Festival (Maine), “UPBEAT” (Croatia), and WSKG’s television program, Expressions (Binghamton, NY).

 

Nathaniel began studying piano, violin, and organ from an early age and later began studying composition. His path to conducting grew out of his interdisciplinary approach to music and the Arts, which he still maintains today. He has served as associate concertmaster of the Southern Tier Symphony Orchestra (Olean, NY) and actively freelanced as a violinist in Memphis, TN. He received both his Bachelor of Music and Master of Arts from the Greatbatch School of Music and his Doctor of Musical Arts from Boston University. He has studied at the Aspen Music Festival and School, where he was awarded the James Conlon Conductor Prize (2015), the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, and Domaine Forget de Charlevoix. He has studied with Bramwell Tovey, Robert Spano, and Larry Rachleff, as well as Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Cristian Măcelaru. Nathaniel is currently based in New England.