Nick White, Adjunct Professor of Horn, is an accomplished musician, composer, and music theorist in the Twin Cities. Originally from St. Petersburg, Florida, White has made a name for himself in the music world in a diversity of ways. As a hornist, Nick is a specialist in music for the theatre including opera, musical theatre, ballet, and film. He has performed with the St. Petersburg Opera, FloriMezzo, freeFall Theatre, American Stage, Northern Stage, Guthrie Theatre, New London Barn Playhouse, and Maine State Music Theatre to name but a few. He has toured with the NTC national touring company of A Christmas Carol as well as the first national tour of Roger Bean’s The Marvelous Wonderettes, as well as subbed with the touring company of Les Misérables. He is currently the Principal Horn of the Chanhassen Dinner Theatres Orchestra where he performed since 2013. White is also a founding member and performer with the Minnesota Horn Quartet.
Nick is also an accomplished composer. His work has been heard at home and abroad including the prestigious Carnegie Hall, The Edvard Munch Concert Hall, and the St. Petersburg State Conservatory. He has worked on new work with various local colleges and university including Normandale Community College and the University of Minnesota. His music is published by Murphy Music Press, Lyon & Healy, and KolyaMusic.
As a music theorist, Nick has focused his attention on musical narrativity, German romanticism, Richard Strauss, and the concept album. His paper “Intertextual tonic reference in Richard Strauss’s Metamorphosen” was presented at Music Theory Society of the Mid-Atlantic’s annual conference in April 2024. In addition to being a graduate instructor at the University of Minnesota in theory, Nick is also the head of the theory department and lead instructor for Minnesota Youth Symphonies.
He studied composition at the New England Conservatory and the St. Petersburg State Conservatory in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the late Sergei Slonimsky. He holds Masters degrees in Horn Performance and Music Theory from the University of Minnesota. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Music Theory, also at UMN. Outside of music, Nick is an avid baseball fan, enjoys hiking, and cultivating his library which currently has 1,270 volumes and counting. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Serena, daughter, Cece, and cat, Vicky.