{"id":116759,"date":"2025-08-14T13:22:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T17:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=116759"},"modified":"2025-08-14T14:00:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T18:00:01","slug":"interview-canadian-composer-nathan-henninger-talks-orchestral-debut-release-five-scenes-orchestra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/08\/14\/interview-canadian-composer-nathan-henninger-talks-orchestral-debut-release-five-scenes-orchestra\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Canadian Composer Nathan Henninger Talks About His Orchestral Debut Release: Five Scenes For Orchestra"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Composer
Composer Nathan Henninger conducts during the recording of his album Five Scenes for Orchestra (Photo courtesy of the artist)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Originally from Toronto, where he spent formative years, Nathan Henninger has carved out a career as a composer and conductor for film and television, as well as concert music. He trained at the Juilliard School and the Film Scoring Academy of Europe, and studied piano with Taka Kigawa in New York.<\/p>\n

He also plays the French horn, and has sung in many professional choirs that have performed at Carnegie Hall, the Lincoln Center, and many other prominent venues.<\/p>\n

His debut album, Five Scenes for Orchestra, dropped on August 8.<\/p>\n

The music was recorded back in 2023 at Teldex Studio in Berlin. Henninger is based in Europe these days, and performers on the album include musicians drawn from the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Rundfunk Symphonieorchester Berlin, and the Deutsche Oper Berlin.<\/p>\n

Henninger wrote the music for Five Scenes after relocating from New York City, where, in addition to his music and compositions, he worked in communications at the United Nations, to the Central Azores in Portugal shortly before the pandemic hit. There, he settled on the volcanic island of Terceira.<\/p>\n

The differences in environment, and his eventual decision to stay in the Azores, colour his work.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s released several single tracks before this debut album, and has another full-length orchestral work titled Romanza already recorded and set for release in early 2026.<\/p>\n

Nathan Henninger: The Interview<\/h2>\n

Nathan grew up in a musical family.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was a music professor at the University of Toronto, and a composer also,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

His father was Richard Henninger<\/strong>, a composer and Assistant Professor of Theory and Composition at the Faculty of Music of the University of Toronto. When he eventually left Toronto, it was to study computer sound synthesis at Stanford University in California. Richard also worked in the computer field for nearly three decades as a software architect.<\/p>\n

During his time in Canada. Richard’s compositions were often commissioned by the CBC, and his music was performed across North America and in the UK.<\/p>\n

Nathan describes his music as being serialist, in tune with the Zeitgeist of the late 1960s and early 1970s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big influence on me, in the sense of when I was a kid, having a composer for a father and going to see the orchestra […] was a huge influence,\u201d Nathan says. \u201cI got into Puccini operas in Toronto as a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the family attended the Metropolitan United Church<\/a>, which then (as now) supported a prominent choral singing program. His mother was in the choir.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were always doing a Benjamin Britten or St Matthews Passion,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

Nathan also began to study the French horn at Huron Elementary School (now Huron Street Junior Public School) in the Annex.<\/p>\n

He has fond memories of his childhood in Toronto. \u201cI was born there, and my formative elementary school years were there. My father had a real career there. My mother studied at OISE. She had a PhD in psychology. My sister played violin.\u201d<\/p>\n

His family\u2019s roots are in Southern California. \u201cMy whole family is from Southern California,\u201d he says. He\u2019d spend summers going back and forth. He calls himself a sort of hybrid of Californian and Canadian. \u201dIt’s really a fish out of water thing,\u201d he says. When he spent time in California, he\u2019d miss Canada, and vice versa.<\/p>\n

After graduating from high school in St. Catharines, Ontario, he studied in California. \u201cI got a scholarship to study music at Pomona College in California,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

There, he studied with the same professors and departments that his father had years earlier. While studying composition, he played French horn in the college symphony. Nathan\u2019s music, while different in style and approach than his father\u2019s, was nonetheless influenced by Richard\u2019s tastes.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was a serial composer, but his interests were choir, Puccini, Bach,\u201d he explains. \u201cI’m very much in this melodic vein of writing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has a simple rule of thumb. \u201cIt always comes back to, can I sing it?\u201d Nathan says his music is also informed by cinema.<\/p>\n

\u201cI taught music for three years after university,\u201d he says. That included working with kids in a musical theatre program. \u201cWe did Oliver,\u201d he recalls. \u201cIt was a real band camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

With both parents in choirs, he also gravitated towards choral music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in every kind of vocal group.\u201d<\/p>\n

After moving to New York City, he began to sing with a number of professional choirs and a cappella groups, some of whom took him to sing at Carnegie Hall and other prominent stages. \u201cLots of great experiences doing professional choirs,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He studied at Greenwich Music Hall with Taka Kigawa<\/strong> for ten years, and performed on the piano there frequently.<\/p>\n