‘Rising star’ Nathan Aspinall recruited for Nashville Symphony

There’s another Australian shining bright in the Nashville music scene, and he’s not country.

The Grammy-winning Nashville Symphony has tapped Nathan Aspinall as the new Assistant Conductor for the commencement of its 2019-20 season.

A graduate of the New England Conservatory and the University of Queensland, Aspinall comes to Music City from the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra in Florida, where he served as Associate Conductor since 2015.

Aspinall, who grew up in Brisbane, is a “rising star in the conducting world,” comments Symphony Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero, who points to his “passion, versatility, creativity” and “nuanced understanding of repertoire.”

During his stint in Jacksonville, Aspinall made several series appearances each season, leading performances of works by Shostakovich, Mendelssohn, Ravel and Strauss and others.

Aspinall has made numerous guest-conducting appearances with orchestras in North America and his homeland.

Prior to Jacksonville, he served as Assistant Conductor of the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra and Young Artist/Assistant Conductor of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra before that.

Aspinall started playing the piano at 5, and later switched to the trumpet and the French horn. His conducting ambitions took a leap forward when, at 15 years of age, he talked his teacher into letting him conduct the high school orchestra.

“Something clicked,” he told Jacksonville.com in 2015. “I knew from then on I wanted to be a conductor.”

He hasn't looked back. Aspinall has won several awards for his work, and holds a master’s in music (Orchestral Conducting) from the New England Conservatory, and completed a bachelor’s of music (Performance) from the University of Queensland, after which time he relocated Stateside.