JEFFREY NYTCH

Biography

Jeffrey Nytch has built a diverse career as a composer, teacher, performer, arts administrator, and consultant. In addition to nearly 25 years as a professional composer, he has also run a small business, performed a wide range of repertoire as a vocalist, and served six seasons as Managing Director of The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (“PNME ”), one of the nation’s premiere new music ensembles.

In 2009 he joined the faculty of The University of Colorado-Boulder, where he serves as Director of The Entrepreneurship Center for Music. His philosophy of teaching entrepreneurship hinges on the idea that entrepreneurial thinking is a process that can be applied in any number of directions, and that students must be given opportunities to develop and implement ideas within the context of their chosen disciplines.

A native of Vestal, New York, Nytch completed a Bachelors degree at Franklin and Marshall College (double majoring in music and geology), and earned Masters and Doctoral degrees in composition from the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. As a composer he has received numerous grants, awards and commissions, and has been performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, MoMA, the Corcoran Gallery, the Kennedy Center, and countless other venues throughout the U.S. and Europe. His music has been commercially released on the MMC and Koch International Classics labels. He has also held teaching posts at Carnegie Mellon University, the American Festival for the Arts, and Franklin & Marshall College. Recent projects include his "Symphony No. 1: Formations" (commissioned by the Geological Society of America), his first string quartet ("Seize the Sun: Fantasy on Icarus," premiered by Carpe Diem String Quartet at Carnegie Hall), and a violin concerto for violinist Edward Dusinberre of the Grammy-winning Takács Quartet.

During his tenure at the University of Colorado-Boulder, he has transformed the Entrepreneurship Center for Music to include an expanded and enhanced curriculum of courses in music career skills, entrepreneurship, arts management and community engagement; a weekly professional development series (“Career Launchpad”); and has partnered with the Leeds School of Business to create an 18-credit Certificate in Music Entrepreneurship. Music students at CU also participate in the New Venture Challenge, the cross-campus entrepreneurship competition, and work in internships spanning a wide range of commercial and non-profit arts ventures. Founded in 1999, the ECM was the first program of its kind, and continues to be a national leader in the teaching of music entrepreneurship.

Nytch is in wide demand as a speaker and scholar, having delivered papers at the Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education, the United States Association of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, the College Music Society, the National Association of Schools of Music, and the Colorado Music Educators Assn. In 2017 he was a Keynote Speaker at the 1st International Conference on Music Entrepreneurship, hosted by the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo. He has been a guest lecturer on arts entrepreneurship at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, the Manhattan School of Music, The University of Minnesota, Rice University, the University of Michigan, and many others. He has also spoken on the intersection of music and earth science at the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, and the Royal Meteorological Society. His publications on arts entrepreneurship have appeared in Artivate: The Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship, The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, and the Journal of Management Policy & Practice. His first book, "The Entrepreneurial Muse: Inspiring Your Career in Classical Music," was released by Oxford University Press in 2018.