Nate Strasser

Nate Strasser

Adjunct Instructor

College of Music & Performing Arts

Biography

Nate Strasser received his undergraduate degree in jazz piano from West Virginia University and was one of 20 students worldwide accepted into the Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television graduate program at University of Southern California in Los Angeles. 

As a composer, Nate has worked both in media music as well as concert music. Nate scored a film accepted into the Cannes Film Festival as well as a national commercial. Recently, Nate was approached by software development firm Technolutions to compose ten original compositions for full orchestra at their upcoming 2022 Summit held at the Music City Convention Center in Nashville. As for his concert works, Nate was commissioned by Wheeling Symphony to write a symphonic work for their 90th Anniversary entitled For the Love of Music and was commissioned to write a choir anthem for Christ United Methodist in Charleston, WV. As an arranger, Nate has done music prep work for Dave Matthews and Seth MacFarlane and continues to be a go-to arranger and orchestrator for a variety of artists in Nashville. As a pianist, Nate has played on many musical theater, video game, and film scores, most notably the Oscar-nominated film Harriet scored by Terrance Blanchard. For this film he was also listed as one of the featured band members in the end credits. Nate was also the pianist for the cast recording of Disney’s Finding Nemo, Jr. Outside of the studio, Nate has performed in Scotland, Austria, and China, playing a variety of styles including jazz, classical, blues, pop, country, among others. Recently, Nate collaborated with Grammy-nominated fiddle player Matt Combs to release their Christmas album Americana Carols, recorded at the historic Oceanway Studios. 

Nate lives in Franklin, TN with his wife, two boys, and two dogs.