Jeffrey Nytch
Professor of Composition • Director, Entrepreneurship Center for Music
Composition • Entrepreneurship Center for Music

Jeffrey Nytch enjoys a diverse career as an award-winning composer, educator, performer, administrator and thought leader in arts entrepreneurship. In addition to more than 30 years as a professional musician, he has also run a small business, co-founded a nonprofit service organization in Houston, performed a wide range of repertoire as a vocalist and served six seasons as managing director of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (PNME), one of the nation’s premiere new music ensembles. In 2009, he joined the faculty of the University of Colorado Boulder, where he serves as director of the Entrepreneurship Center for Music.

A native of Vestal, New York, Nytch completed a bachelor's degree at Franklin and Marshall College (double-majoring in music and geology), and earned master's and doctoral degrees in composition from the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. As a composer, he has received numerous grants, awards and commissions, and his music has been performed throughout the United States and abroad by many major ensembles and artists. Recordings include releases on the MMC, New Dynamics Records and Koch International Classics labels. He as also held teaching posts at Carnegie Mellon University, the American Festival for the Arts and Franklin & Marshall College.

Since arriving at CU Boulder, Nytch has rebuilt the Entrepreneurship Center for Music into one of the top programs of its kind in the world. Winner of the 2020 Specialty Entrepreneurship Education Award from the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers, the ECM offers a diverse curriculum in music careers, entrepreneurship, arts management and community engagement; a weekly professional development series (the “Career Launchpad”); and a 15-credit Certificate in Music Entrepreneurship that includes a minor in business. Students at the College of Music also participate in the New Venture Challenge, the cross-campus entrepreneurship competition, and work in internships spanning a range of commercial and nonprofit arts ventures. 

As one of the leading voices in his profession, Nytch is in wide demand as a speaker and scholar, having delivered papers at numerous venues at home and abroad, including the United States Association of Small Business & Entrepreneurship, the College Music Society, the National Association of Schools of Music, the Marketing Management Association and the Society of Arts Entrepreneurship Education. In 2017, he was also a keynote speaker at the First International Conference on Arts Entrepreneurship Education in Oslo, Norway. Nytch has lectured on arts entrepreneurship at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, the Manhattan School of Music, Baylor University, Northwestern, University of Michigan and many others. His publications on arts entrepreneurship have appeared in Artivate: A Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship, The Journal of Arts Management, Law, and Society and the Journal of Arts Entrepreneurship Education. Nytch's book, "The Entrepreneurial Muse: Inspiring Your Career in Classical Music" (2018, Oxford University Press), was the first book to address entrepreneurial theory in a performing arts context and has cemented his reputation as a thought leader in his field. In 2020, Nytch received the top award from the Society for Arts Entrepreneurship Education, the Sharon T. Alpi Award, in recognition of his many contributions to the field of arts entrepreneurship. In 2021, he joined the Yamaha Master Educator Collective’s newly-launched Music Business and Entrepreneurship group.

Composition Entrepreneurship Center for Music