Nathan Lowry

Nathan Lowry was appointed to the SLSO’s second violin section in 2023 by Music Director Stéphane Denève. Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Lowry began violin through the Suzuki method at age four, learning from Mary Helen Law. Throughout his teen years, he attended the pre-college program at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music as a Myra Jackson Scholar, where he would later go to earn his Bachelor of Music under the tutelage of Christian Teal and Carolyn Huebl. He received his master’s degree at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, studying with Alexander Kerr, and then earned his Artist Diploma from Rice University’s Shepherd School as a student of Paul Kantor.

An avid performer of contemporary music, Lowry held a fellowship position with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble for the festival’s 2019, 2021, and 2022 seasons, having performed numerous recent works by contemporary titans as well as premiering dozens of works by eminent young composers under the batons of Donald Crockett and Timothy Weiss. Lowry performed as soloist with the ensemble in the 2021 summer season, performing Sid Hodkinson’s Violin Concerto-Fantasia Bricks. He also acted as first violinist for the 2017-2018 Indiana University New Music Ensemble led by David Dzubay, working with leading composers such as Augusta Read Thomas, Kate Soper, and Gabriela Ortiz. In summer 2018, he traveled with NME to Mexico City, holding an inaugural concert at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México as part of Indiana University’s Mexico City gateway opening. Additionally, he has participated in programs with Houston-based new music collectives Loop38 and KINETIC as part of their 2019-2020 concert season. He aspires also to explore underrepresented gems in the violin repertoire, and has been working on a project to record all of Bulgarian composer Petar Christoskov’s 24 Bulgarian Caprices.

Lowry made his solo debut at the Eastern Music Festival in 2011, winning the festival’s concerto competition with Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen. He would go on to receive the same honor the following summer season, performing the first movement of Erich Korngold’s Violin Concerto, which he would later perform with Blair School’s Curb Youth Symphony, as well as the Paducah Symphony Orchestra. During his third season at the Eastern Music Festival, he performed the concertmaster solos to Richard Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben.

As an orchestral musician, Lowry has held concertmaster and principal second violin positions at both the Colorado College Music Festival and Eastern Music Festival, as well as the Curb Youth Symphony and Vanderbilt University orchestras. Other leadership roles include principal positions with the Evansville Philharmonic and Owensboro Symphony Orchestras. He is a frequent substitute musician for the Nashville Symphony, as well as a freelance player for many orchestral recording sessions at Oceanway Studios, recording soundtracks for TV shows, movies, and videogames.

When not making music, Lowry is an avid hiker, and aspires to summit Colorado’s 58 peaks above 14,000 feet in elevation.