Ted Nash (Alto and Soprano Saxophones, Flute, Clarinet) enjoys an extraordinary career as a performer, conductor, composer, writer, and educator. Born in Los Angeles, Nash’s interest in music started at an early age, encouraged by his father trombonist Dick Nash, and uncle, reedman Ted Nash, both well-known studio and jazz musicians. Nash blossomed early, a “young lion” before the term became marketing vernacular. Ted Nash has been a composer since he was fifteen. His album Portrait in Seven Shades was recorded by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and was released in 2010. The album features the first composition released by the JLCO featuring original music by a band member other than bandleader Wynton Marsalis. It was credited by Ted Panken in Downbeat Magazine as marking a new direction for the Orchestra. For this work Nash received his first Grammy nomination as best arranger. Nash’s work often addresses and embraces themes of cultural and social importance. He grew up in a household of open-mindedness and social awareness; Nash’s parents, in addition to being wonderful musicians, were civil rights activists whose work helped improve the lives of so many people. Nash’s Grammy-winning recording, Presidential Suite: Eight Variations on Freedom won the 2017 Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album Grammy Award. The album includes “Spoken at Midnight,” which won the 2017 Best Instrumental Composition Grammy Award. Nash’s arrangement of “We Three Kings,” featured on the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis’ Big Band Holidays album, was nominated for the 2017 Best Instrumental Or A Cappella Arrangement Grammy Award. In 2017 Nash received the Composer of the Year award by the Jazz Journalists Association.