Director of the Entrepreneurship for Music 
at the University of Colorado-Boulder

Jeffrey Nytch (b. 1964) has built a diverse career as a composer, educator, performer, administrator, and consultant. In addition to nearly 30 years as a professional composer, he has also run a small business, performed a wide range of repertoire as a singer and voice artist, and served six seasons as Managing Director of Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, one of the nation’s premiere chamber ensembles for the commissioning and performance of music by living composers. In 2009 he joined the faculty of The University of Colorado-Boulder, where he is an Associate Professor of Composition and Director of The Entrepreneurship Center for Music.

A native of Vestal, New York, Nytch completed a dual bachelor’s degree at Franklin and Marshall College (double majoring in music and geology) and went on to earn master’s and doctoral degrees in composition from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. His music has been performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, MoMA, National Sawdust, the Corcoran Gallery, the Kennedy Center, and countless other venues throughout the U.S. and Europe. Notable artists include the New York Chamber Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Moravian Philharmonic, Grammy-winning Third Coast Percussion, ~Nois Saxophone Quartet, and many others. The recording of his Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra, with Richard Stoltzman and the Seattle Symphony, was celebrated by Gramophone as one of the Top 10 Classical Discs of 2002. In 2013, his Symphony No. 1: Formations, commissioned by the Geological Society of America, received international praise for its fusion of music, science, and community engagement. More recent projects include a violin concerto for Grammy-winning violinist Edward Dusinberre, his choral work, “Our Birthright” (premiered in 2022 at Carnegie Hall), and For the Trees, a multi-media string quartet that received its East Coast premiere last April at National Sawdust in Brooklyn. His works have been recorded on the MMC, Koch International Classics, and New Dynamic labels; a recording of his complete works for organ will be released by Centaur Records in late 2023.

Nytch is also one of the leading arts entrepreneurship educators in the field. 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; maintained a weekly professional development series; and has partnered with the Leeds School of Business to create a 15-credit Certificate in Music Entrepreneurship. In 2020, the center received the Specialty in Entrepreneurship Education award from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, the first time this distinguished international award has been bestowed on an arts-based program.

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, Music Teachers National Association, and others. He has also been a guest clinician at dozens of the nation’s top conservatories, including the Jacobs School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, Shepherd School of Music, Roosevelt University, Northwestern Bienen School of Music, and many others. 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 also spoken on the intersection of music and earth science at the Geological Society of America, the American Geophysical Union, the European Geosciences Union, and the Royal Meteorological Society. His publications on arts entrepreneurship have appeared in Artivate: The Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship, Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society, Journal of Management Policy & Practice and Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Education. His first book, The Entrepreneurial Muse: Inspiring Your Career in Classical Music, was released by Oxford University Press in 2018 and has proven to be a seminal work in the field of arts entrepreneurship theory and practice. In 2020, Nytch received the Sharon T. Alpi Award for Innovative Pedagogy, the highest honor given by the Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education.