Bio
Contemporary composer and pianist Nathan Shubert (they/them), originally from Vancouver and now based in Berlin, writes music that merges felted piano, minimalism, and a quiet, observational sense of intimacy. Their work is shaped by subtle details; creaking wood, pedal noise, soft hammers, and an approach that treats the piano as both a musical and physical landscape.
After more than a decade as a touring keyboardist in Canada, Shubert set themselves a six-month daily composition challenge. Eleven pieces emerged from the exercise and became Folds (2017)—their debut solo album. The title refers to a strict alternation technique in which left and right hands overlap in mirrored patterns, creating the folded, layered textures that define the record.
Folds opened a trilogy continued by When You Take Off Your Shoes (2019, Bigo & Twigetti)—drawn from roughly sixty written pieces trimmed to a unified album—and The Moon From Here (2022), exploring loss, quiet transformation, and the search for stability through years of upheaval. Field recordings from travels across North America and Europe are woven into the compositions; mechanical sounds of the instrument—pedal thuds, hammer taps, bench creaks—are treated as part of the music itself.
Their new album Iso (2025), recorded with an eleven-microphone setup on their home upright piano, captures every nuance of the instrument to reveal an unvarnished portrait of presence, vulnerability, and emotional clarity.
Now rooted in Berlin's modern classical community, Nathan Shubert continues to perform across Europe, bringing a deeply personal, sensory-aware approach to contemporary piano music.