Nicholas Bentz is a composer-performer who is primarily interested in the intersections of art and alternative modes of perception and expression. His music often takes its inspiration from pieces of literature and poetry, film, and visual art. As a composer he has received commissions from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, the Robinson Jeffers Association, the College of Charleston Contemporary Music Ensemble, SONAR New Music Ensemble, Troika, Symphony Number One, and the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, and has had his music played by the Jacksonville Symphony and the Peabody Modern Orchestra. Nicholas was a winner of an EarShot New Music Reading through American Composer’s Orchestra and SONAR New Music Ensemble's RADARLab Competition as well as the Baltimore Choral Society's Student Composer Project. He was also a finalist for the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards in 2014, and was the Composer in Residence for Symphony Number One's 2016-17 season.

   Equally at home on the violin, Nicholas has performed with orchestras from across the world, soloing with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Pacific Philharmonic, Piccolo Spoleto Festival Orchestra, and Symphony Number One. He has also performed with the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. Nicholas attended the Aspen Music Festival and School for seven summers, and was chosen as a finalist for the Dorothy DeLay Fellowship Competition in 2012. In 2014 he was selected as a finalist for the Marbury Competition, and was the winner of the Pacific Region International Summer Music Academy Concerto Competition. Nicholas has participated in masterclasses with Alexander Kerr, Victor Danchenko, and Vadim Gluzman. He is the former concertmaster of Symphony Number One, and was previously the co-concertmaster of the Peabody Concert Orchestra and the College of Charleston Chamber Orchestra. As a dedicated chamber musician, Nicholas has worked with Mind on Fire, Now Hear This, SONAR New Music Ensemble, Peabody Camerata, and the College of Charleston Contemporary Music Ensemble among others. An avid and sought-after interpreter of new music, Nicholas has commissioned and premiered over thirty pieces ranging from chamber and solo pieces to concerti and multimedia works.

  Nicholas currently attends the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University where he is pursuing a master's degree in violin under the tutelage of Herbert Greenberg as a recipient of the Randolph S. Rothschild, Eugene Scheffres, and Richard E. Hartt Scholarships as well as the David and Karen Stahl Memorial Scholarship through the generosity of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra League. He is also currently studying composition privately with Felipe Lara. Nicholas received bachelor's degrees in both composition and violin at the Peabody Institute under Kevin Puts and Herbert Greenberg. His previous composition teachers include Yiorgos Vassilandonakis and George Tsontakis, and his previous violin teachers include Yuriy Bekker and Diana Cohen.

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