Nathan recently took part as a composer in the 2018 edition of the Toronto Creative Music Lab, a week-long professional development intensive for emerging new music composers and performers from around the world. A new piece of music was written by each composer prior to the workshop, where it was then developed and rehearsed throughout the duration.

The product was Classical Music for Studying, a piece for 6 musicians, a conductor and a stereo soundtrack involving a dramatic element. The piece takes place in an imagined future where social media technology determines all aspects of life. The performers in the piece act as eager, but untrained, classical musicians exploring a lost art that is accessible to them only through YouTube playlists with titles like: “Classical Music for Meditation, Studying and Relaxation”. They learn to replicate the sounds they hear in the playlists, and learn to expand on them in their own unique ways. A conductor and group leader writes music for them and desperately tries to maintain control of the group, but eventually gives into the chaos of exploration as well.

Nathan acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, from whom he received a Professional Development Grant to aid in the completion of this project.