Nathan James Dearden is a Welsh composer whose music explores identity, place, and memory through concert music, choral works, and immersive multimedia performance.

Described as "a champion of his generation" and whose music is "hauntingly beautiful" (Media Wales), his work has been commissioned, performed and recorded by many of Britain's leading performers and ensembles including the BBC Singers, Philharmonia Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Berkeley Ensemble, Welsh National Opera, mezzo-soprano Helen Charlston, The Tippett Quartet, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, National Youth Choir of Wales, The Heath Quartet, Grand Band, the Fidelio Trio, Hebrides Ensemble, CHROMA ensemble, and flautist Carla Rees. His music regularly features in concerts across the UK and overseas, including at the ISCM World Music Days, Cheltenham Music Festival, Dartington International Summer School and Festival, International Young Composers' Meeting, CROSSROADS International New Music Festival and Vale of Glamorgan Festival of Music. Nathan began his professional composing life as an inaugural Young Composer-in-Residence with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales and Music Creator for Sinfonia Newydd in 2013. Since then his music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru, Resonance FM, RTÉ lyric FM, S4C and Soho Radio, whilst also released on NMC Recordings and Delphian.

Recent projects reflect an increasingly interdisciplinary practice that places the human voice at its centre. They include Mamiaith, created with Music Theatre Wales and the National Eisteddfod of Wales; messages, commissioned by the Three Choirs Festival; the Welsh tour of The day following with UPROAR New Music Ensemble; and silent stones, commissioned by BBC Sounds for the BBC Singers. His current creative work includes large-scale choral, theatrical, and immersive projects that explore contemporary Welsh identity through music, text, and emerging technologies, including his ongoing multimedia work Passion.

Nathan's work has received numerous awards and honours. In 2024 he was awarded the prestigious Tlws y Cyfansoddwr (Composer's Medal) at the National Eisteddfod of Wales for (ail-) atgofion. He was named Best Music Creator at the 2022 Making Music Awards for i breathe, selected to represent Wales at the 2023 ISCM World Music Days, received an Early Career Public Engagement Award from the Institute of Musical Research, was a London Philharmonic Orchestra Leverhulme Arts Scholar, received the inaugural Paul Mealor Award for Outstanding Young Composers, and was the first recipient of the Acapela Composer Award from the Welsh Music Guild.

As a conductor, Nathan is carving a career as one of the most sought-after interpreters of his generation for the performance of twentieth and twenty-first century repertoire. Nathan has held posts and guest conductorships at National Youth Orchestra of Wales, National Youth Choir of Wales, CHROMA, Cardiff University, Cardiff Contemporary Music Group, London Metropolitan University / CASS Institute, and is currently the Director of New Music Collective and New Voices Consort at Royal Holloway, University of London. Nathan made his London Philharmonic Orchestra conducting debut with members of the LPO at their 2018 Summer Gala. Nathan has recorded, performed and premiered works by established living composers such as Judith Weir, David Lang, Caroline Shaw, Michael Finnissy, Benjamin Tassie, Gavin Bryars and Howard Skempton, plus hundreds of new works by young and emerging composers. 

Nathan is Associate Professor in Music Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he also serves as Co-Head of Student Recruitment & Global for the Department of Music, Drama and Media Arts. He is Composer-in-Residence with the Choir of Royal Holloway and Music Performance Manager, combining artistic leadership with teaching, research, performance, and the strategic development of music within higher education. His doctoral research, completed at Royal Holloway in 2023 under the supervision of Mark Bowden, explored musical portraiture and composition as a form of social commentary.

Nathan holds a Bachelor of Music (with Honours) from Cardiff University, where he was awarded the David Lloyd Music Prize for excellence in vocal studies and choral work (2012) and the Elizabeth Griffiths Award for his outstanding contribution to the musical life at Cardiff University School of Music (2013). He later graduated from Cardiff University as a Master of Music (with Distinction) in Music Composition with Robert Fokkens, Louis Johnson and Arlene Sierra, where his studies were kindly supported by Cardiff University, the James Pantyfedwen Foundation and the Vaughan Williams Foundation. 

Alongside his creative and academic work, Nathan is committed to supporting the development of contemporary music and the next generation of musicians. He is Membership Secretary and a Board Member of the Welsh Music Guild, Festival Manager of Chamber Music on Valentia, a Classical Music Mentor with the Help Musicians, SoundBoard mentoring network, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Through these roles, alongside his work as a composer, conductor, educator, and artistic leader, Nathan champions new music, nurtures emerging artists, and works to strengthen the place of Welsh music and culture within the wider musical landscape.