American Prize finalist Nailah Nombeko is a native New Yorker whose music has been performed throughout the United States at venues including Symphony Space, Columbia University, the University of Kansas, the University of Kentucky, the International Double Reed Conference at the University of Colorado, National Sawdust, Annapolis Opera, and Portland Opera. International performances of her work have taken place in the Netherlands with soprano Marijke Groenendaal and in England at the Royal Northern College of Music. Her compositions have also been performed by artists including Kearstin Piper Brown, Maria Brea, Karen Slack, Kara Dugan, and Jennifer Sgroe.
Nombeko has received commissions from the Maryland Opera Studio, the Ethel Quartet, Intersection Music for oboist Jared Hauser, Ex-Aequo's "Changing the Canon" project, the Skaneateles Music Festival, and the Wollman-Brea-Baitel Trio for its "Becoming America" project.
In 2022, Nombeko was one of ten composers selected for the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Composer Mentor Program. Through the program, she was commissioned to compose a new work for countertenor, which premiered in the summer of 2023. She has also written music for the PBS documentary Buildings and Moods.
In 2023, soprano Emily Albrink's album Force of Nature reached No. 1 on Billboard's Traditional Classical Music Chart. The recording features Nombeko's song cycle Facets of Womanhood, with texts by Mary McCallum. That same summer, her work Fortitude, which explores the life of Harriet Tubman through texts by Alicia Haymer, premiered at the Skaneateles Music Festival with soprano Kearstin Piper Brown.
Nombeko's music is also featured on the Wollman-Brea-Baitel Trio album Becoming America.
She is a member of the African American Art Song Alliance and New York Women Composers. Her song "Nobody Knows" is published by E.C. Schirmer.
Reviews and Commentary
"Piece for Oboe and Piano, is beautiful and invigorating-lyrical lines with staccato piano contrasting with legato oboe."
Mark Greenfest- Sound Word Sight
"…five short poems by Blake (1757-1827)... Beginning with "The Lilly" and closing with "The Sick Rose," these segments seem to reflect a life cycle: first upbeat but disruptive, then more pensive and hopeful. A restless but wondering middle section gives way to a reflective series of descending chord clusters; then the final poem, a rumination on death, is accompanied by a surprisingly sanguine musical tone."
Jack Crager- New Music for the 21 Century
"Nailah Nombeko imbued her violin/piano duo, Obscurity, with a brooding Debussy-esque Impressionism. It made no excuses for its straightforward ABA1 structure, song form an appropriate choice for so lyrical a work…
David Gunn-New Music for the 21 Century
Compassionate words from a loving mother to daughter receive kindred expression in Nombeko's heartfelt writing in “Be brave, be bold, be free!”
Ron Schepper-Textura
“I’m always interested in how people interpret my relative,” Bryant said, “and I am amazed at [Nombeko’s] evocation.”
Judith Gladys Bryant (Harriet Tubman's great niece's thoughts regarding "Fortitude") Central NY Music News
Click on the link to listen to "Short Songs to the Poetry of William Blake " performed by soprano Tiffany DuMouchelle and pianist Marcia Eckert.
"Short Songs to the Poetry of William Blake " performed by soprano Adrienne Patino-Dunn and pianist Marcia Eckert.