Nate is an international, multi-award winning composer, sound designer, musical director, and occasional video designer for film, television, radio, advertising and stage. He is currently a full-time composer and sound designer for Rockefeller Productions, based out of New York City. Throughout 2020/21, Nate wrote and arranged the original score for the world premier of Winnie The Pooh: The New Musical Stage Adaptation, which debuted Off-Broadway in New York to critical acclaim though like all Rockefeller productions it was prerecorded so it can be taken wherever the show is.
Nate originally trained as a classical and jazz trombonist, and pianist, in addition to fronting several bands as a multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter, and arranger. He is also a graduate of the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), where he trained under the mentorship of some of Australia’s finest musicians and sound designers.
Currently based in New York, Nate has worked extensively in the theatre and live events industries for the past twelve years, and his detailed music scores and sound designs can regularly be heard on stages around the world. He has created work for some of Australia’s premier theatre and dance companies, and arts festivals, with much of his work touring both nationally and internationally.
In 2015 and 2016 respectively, his work on the critically acclaimed Siren Theatre Company productions of Misterman and Good With Maps both earned him a Sydney Theatre Award for Best Score / Sound Design (Independent). In 2018, his work as sound designer with Sydney Theatre Company on the two-part stage epic, The Harp In The South, garnered multiple award nominations, including a prestigious Helpmann Award nomination for Best Sound Design in 2019. Further to individual accolades, Nate has been a part of many award-winning productions around the world.
On the international stage, Nate has written music for productions in the UK and the US, and his work has toured throughout the US, Canada, UK, Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East. The UK remount of his composition and sound design for All My Sons, with Street Theatre, was the winner of the Brian Dyer Trophy for Best Score / Sound Design, 2014/15 (The Phoebe Rees Competition - Somerset Fellowship of Drama). His celebrated scores for The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show helped smash Off-Broadway box office records in the US in 2016, and again in 2017, and led to Drama Desk Awards and Off-Broadway Alliance Awards nominations, followed by multiple sold out seasons on London's West End. Nate's work on this production has now been heard by millions across the globe, and still continues today.
Produced by Rockefeller Productions and Disney Theatrical Group, Nate also served as musical director, and adapted and re-invented several songs from Disney's musical catalogue, including iconic songs by the Sherman Brothers.
Beyond theatre, dance and live events, Nate also produces music for television, radio, online media, short films, VR, mobile apps, podcasts, and commercial advertising. In 2020, he provided score and sound design for That Golden Girls Show!, streamed online through Broadway On Demand, and also produced a feature film adaptation of Massenet's Cendrillon opera, with the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. In 2021, he provided score, foley, and sound design for Paddington Saves Christmas, streamed globally for the festive season. in 2022 he did the score and sound design for Sesame Street: The Musical.
Nate also lectures in theatre production, technical audio and sound design. He has taught, supervised, and mentored students at NIDA, UTS, AIM Dramatic Arts, AFTT, Excelsior College and Wesley Institute, as well as providing consultation and technical / design support for production companies, theatrical venues and education programs across Sydney and beyond.
Nate was a recipient of an individual Australia Council ArtStart Grant for 2013, and a Mike Walsh Fellowship in 2019.