Composer Brian Raphael Nabors, a Birmingham City Schools Grad, Premieres New Work at Carver Theatre

Composer Brian Nabors receives applause as he premieres new work at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in downtown Birmingham.
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Story and photos by Marika N. Johnson | For The Birmingham Times

The renovated and reopened Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame in downtown Birmingham, Alabama, recently played host to an evening of music by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra (ASO) and Composer Brian Raphael Nabors, a 2009 graduate of Huffman High School.

The occasion on Thursday, December 5 marked the ASO’s first appearance at the location, also known as the Carver Theatre, since 1935. The orchestra performed the world premiere of a new work by Nabors that included a Bach Brandenburg Concerto and Italian composer Ottorino Respighi’s “Ancient Airs and Dances.”

Alabama Symphony Orchestra Conductor Carlos Izcaray, left, and composer Brian Raphael Nabors, a Birmingham native and City Schools graduate.

Nabors, known for his dynamic and evocative works that blend classical traditional with modern sensibilities, said the show was about “two histories coming together, one of a symphonic nature and the other of jazz.”

A writer of contemporary jazz yet a child of Civil Rights parents and Jim Crow grandparents, Nabors expressed his elation about “combining the two histories and being a part of both.”

The composer earned both a Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degree in Composition at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM), where he studied with Douglas Knehans, Ellen Ruth Harrison and Miguel A. Roig-Francolí. Prior to graduate studies, he obtained a Bachelor of Music Theory & Composition degree from the School of the Arts at Samford University in Birmingham, AL.

Nabors will be at the Birmingham’s Ballard House today Dec. 9, 2024, 5:30 p.m. for an intimate conversation and listening session.