Biography

New Jersey native, Nathanael Udell, is highly sought after as an early horn specialist, and has performed with groups such as The Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF), Handel and Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, Musica Angelica, Bach Collegium San Diego, Bach Society Houston, Ars Lyrica Houston, Mercury Chamber Orchestra, and in January 2023, he was invited to play principal horn with Joyce DiDonato and Il Pomo D’oro as part of her Eden tour. Currently, he is principal horn of William Crutchfield’s opera company, Teatro Nuovo, and works as an editor for the Historic Brass Society’s biannual newsletter, Historic Brass Today. 

When not playing early horn, Nathanael is active in the east coast freelancing scene as a modern horn player and has worked with The American Ballet Theatre, Sarasota Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, The Albany Symphony, was on Broadway for Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, and Lincoln Center Theater’s 2023 production of Camelot. In 2016, Nathanael was the acting principal horn of the Orquestra Filarmónica de Jalisco in Guadalajara, Mexico. 

A graduate of Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, he earned his Doctor of Music degree under the tutelage of the former principal horn of the Chicago Symphony, Dale Clevenger. A Rice University and The Juilliard School graduate, he studied with William VerMeulen and David Wakefield respectively. Aside from modern horn, Nathanael also studied early horn with R.J. Kelley, Richard Seraphinoff, and Anneke Scott.