First Sundays on the Fisk: Nathan Laube

Overview

Nathan Laube is a leading performer and pedagogue who is beloved around the world. His extensive recital career includes major venues spanning four continents, with appearances at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Maison Radio France in Paris, Auditorium Maurice Ravel in Lyon, and the Sejong Center in Seoul. Highlight performances in the USA include Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles; Verizon Hall, Philadelphia; Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco; The Meyerson Symphony Center, Dallas TX; Overture Hall, Madison, WI; the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Nashville, TN; the Kauffman Center in Kansas City, MO; and Spivey Hall in Morrow, GA. He has performed in the most famous churches and cathedrals of Europe, including Notre-Dame Cathedral and Saint-Sulpice in Paris, St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, the Frauenkirche in Dresden, and the Berlin Dom. In August 2022 he performed a solo organ recital for the prestigious BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall in London.

He is regularly called upon to inaugurate important organs across the world, including Canterbury Cathedral and King’s College Chapel, Cambridge (UK), Moscow’s new Zaryadye Concert Hall (RU), and Concert Hall in Göteborg (SE). In October 2020 he had the honor of performing the first solo recital on Austria’s largest pipe organ built by the Rieger at St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Stephansdom) in Vienna. In the USA, dedications have included the new C.B. Fisk organ at The Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh, NC, and the restored Aeolian-Skinner at Northrop Auditorium at University of Minnesota. In 2022 he inaugurated several notable instruments, including St. Paul’s Cathedral in Birmingham, AL, and the famous Harrison & Harrison at York Minster (UK). Passionate about organ design and aesthetics, he also serves on reference groups for new instruments, including the new Rieger organ for the Concert Hall in Göteborg, Sweden.

Mr. Laube is a regular guest at notable music festivals around the world as a performer and pedagogue: the Berlin Orgelsommer (DE), the Stuttgart Internationaler Orgelsommer (DE), the Naumburg Orgelsommer (DE), the 300th Anniversary festival of the 1714 Silbermann organ in the Freiberg Cathedral (DE), the Dresden Music Festival (DE), the Hamburg International Music Festival (DE), the Orléans Organ Festival (FR), Bordeaux Festival d’Été (FR), the Lapua Festival (FI), the Lahti Organ Festival (FI), the Smarano Organ Academy (IT), the Göteborg International Organ Festival and Academy (SE), the Stockholm OrganSpace Festival (SE), the Max Reger Foundation of America’s 2015 Max Reger Festival (USA), and the WFMT Bach Project in Chicago (USA).

Mr. Laube has two CD recordings available: the Stephen Paulus Grand Concerto on the Naxos label recorded with the Nashville Symphony, Giancarlo Guerrero, conducting, for which the Nashville Symphony received a GRAMMY Award for Best Classical Compendium; and a solo recital recording on the Ambiente label recorded at the Stadtkirche in Nagold, Germany. He has collaborated with solo artists including Andreas Ottensamer, principal clarinet with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Christopher Martin, principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic; and violinist Rachel Barton Pine. Many of Mr. Laube’s live performances have been featured on American Public Media’s “Pipedreams.”

In April 2019, Mr. Laube launched the documentary-style radio program, “All the Stops,” on the WFMT Radio Network Chicago, consisting of four two-hour programs which feature many of the world’s most famous organs in Europe and the United States and explore their unique histories and repertoire.

Mr. Laube is currently Associate Professor of Organ at the Eastman School of Music. Laube previously taught at Eastman from 2013 to 2020, and then from 2020-2022 taught on the organ faculty at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart, Germany, where he succeeded his mentor, Ludger Lohmann. Since 2018 Laube additionally holds the post of the International Consultant in Organ Studies at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, UK. He is frequently asked to sit on the juries for important international organ competitions, including the 2021 Gottfried Silbermann International Competition in Freiberg (DE), and the Martini International Organ Competition in Groningen (NL) in 2022.

Mr. Laube is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he studied with Alan Morrison. The recipient of a William Fulbright fellowship, he continued his studies at the Conservatoire Rayonnement Régional in Toulouse with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen. He received his Masters at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, Germany, where he studied with Ludger Lohmann, under the auspices of a DAAD Grant.