Nate Ben-Horin’s work as a collaborative pianist has taken him across Canada and the US, and as far afield as Ireland and Costa Rica. When not in his adoptive city of Toronto, he can be frequently found playing for Opera Columbus, which has invited him back every season since he completed a residency there in 2021-2. Other recent highlights include a three-month tour of British Columbia with the children’s opera The Flight of the Hummingbird (Vancouver Opera/Pacific Opera Victoria), a recital tour with tenor Dane Suarez, and a music director position with Opera 5’s production of Elegies, and his European debut with the Wexford Festival. He has also worked extensively with the noted indie company West Edge Opera in his native San Francisco Bay Area.
Alongside Wagnerian soprano Jaclyn Grossman, Nate is the co-founder, co-producer, pianist, and composer/arranger of Likht Ensemble, a duo dedicated to the field of Holocaust music. This project has been presented in recital by the Harold Greene Jewish Theatre, Pacific Opera Victoria, the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, the Canadian Opera Company’s Free Concert Series, and others, with upcoming engagements with Salle Bourgie, City Lyric Opera, the Leah Posluns Theatre, and ExilArte. Of his work there, reviewer Lynn Slotkin wrote, “Nate Ben Horin is a graceful pianist, a gifted arranger of the music to best serve the song, and an attentive accompanist.”
An enthusiastic teacher and coach, Nate has held faculty appointments at Capital University and UC Berkeley, and has been on the coaching staff of the young artist programs of the Wexford Factory and Sewanee OperaFest under the direction of renowned voice teacher Laura Brooks Rice. His work with Likht Ensemble has included student workshops on Holocaust music, grant writing, and self-producing at the collegiate level, as well as lecture-recitals for general audiences.
He completed his graduate degree in collaborative piano from McGill University with Michael McMahon and Stephen Hargreaves in 2020. Before falling into the opera world, he studied solo piano with leading American pianist Jeremy Denk, and received an eclectic undergraduate music degree from UC Berkeley. Musically omnivorous and inclined towards project-based creativity and collaboration, some of Nate’s particular interests and specialties include continuo harpsichord, recital work, Schubert, composition, and new/unusual repertoire. In his free time he enjoys encountering animals, walking while listening to audiobooks, and consuming snacks.