Nathan Lincoln-DeCusatis

Faculty Memorial Hall 445
Fordham University-Rose Hill Campus
441 E. Fordham Road
Bronx, NY 10458

Phone: 718-817-0006
Email: [email protected]

Office Hours: by appointment

Education 

BM Ithaca College; DMA University of Maryland 

Specialization

​Composition, Theory, and Jazz  

​Biography

Dr. Nathan Lincoln-DeCusatis is a composer and jazz pianist whose music synthesizes a wide array of influences from popular, minimalist and jazz idioms with a deep grounding in classical forms and traditions. His work is often guided by psychological narratives that unfold through references to past musical traditions, communal improvisation, cult films, iconic works of art, and the ambient sounds of the urban landscape. In this way, his music produces a dense network of post-modern meanings that the listener is invited to unravel through their own interpretation. His music has been described in the Washington Post as “a kind of kaleidoscope…each moment bringing a shift in the harmonic feel and flow, from jazzy licks to piled-up counterpoint to independent chords.” All About Jazz calls him “a musician that has absorbed the stylistic vocabularies of the greats and distilled them into his own personal approach both muscular and lyrical.”

This inclusive musical voice has resulted in a wide range of recent works and commissions that encompass evening-length improvised multi-media suites, electro-acoustic pieces and traditional chamber and orchestral music. His work has been performed nationally by such groups as The Chesapeake Orchestra, Inscape Chamber Orchestra, Pikes Falls Chamber Players, The Left Bank Quartet, and saxophonist Noah Getz. Recent awards and accolades include an American Music Center CAP award, the Walsum Prize, an SCI commission regional finalist, an Atlantic Center for the Arts residency under composer musician Henry Threadgill, and the Smadbeck Prize. His music was recently released on the Grammy-nominated Sono Luminis release Sprung Rhythm, and his chamber symphony was released on Inscape’s 2014 record American Aggregate. Originally from Maryland, Dr. Lincoln-DeCusatis holds degrees in composition from Ithaca College (BM) and the University of Maryland (DMA).