Nicholas Britell

Three-time Academy Award-nominated, Grammy-nominated, and Emmy-winning composer, pianist, and producer Nicholas Britell continues to push the boundaries of musical storytelling while captivating audiences globally with his moving compositions. Described by The New York Times as “The Composer at the Frontier of Film Music,” Britell has achieved renown in such projects as HBO’s Emmy-winning series Succession, Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award Best Picture winner Moonlight, and his follow-up, the critically-acclaimed If Beale Street Could Talk. His collaborations with Academy Award winner Adam McKay have resulted in numerous powerful scores, including those for the Oscar-nominated films The Big Short, Vice, and Don’t Look Up. Other notable projects include his Emmy-nominated score for Barry Jenkins’ The Underground Railroad, his Emmy-nominated score and main title theme for Lucasfilm’s Star Wars series Andor, and his well-loved scores for Netflix’s The King starring Timothée Chalamet and Disney’s Cruella starring Emma Stone. As Soraya McDonald described him in Film Comment, “Nicholas Britell is steadily shaping the sound of modern American storytelling, one project at a time.”

Britell’s music has created a passionate following across the globe and has become a viral phenomenon on multiple occasions. His piece “Agape” from If Beale Street Could Talk and his Succession Main Title Theme have both taken on lives of their own through millions of fan-created reels, videos, and posts. In recent years, his focus has grown to include numerous songwriting and producing collaborations. Since 2017, he has written and produced songs with artists including Ariana Grande, Florence + The Machine, Bon Iver, Pusha T, Christina Aguilera, Sara Bareilles, Pop Smoke, The D.O.C., Julieta Venegas, Kid Cudi, and Robert Glasper. His music has also been sampled on such albums as Nas’ Grammy-winning King’s Disease and Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon III: The Chosen.

Britell’s relationship with the piano began on the Upper West Side of Manhattan when he was five years old. Having studied at Juilliard and Harvard, Britell continues his passion for artistic development through his current affiliation with the Juilliard School as a Creative Associate and Executive Creative Director of the Juilliard Film Score Lecture Series. A Steinway Artist, Britell has increasingly been performing his music as a soloist with orchestras. In recent years, he has performed at London’s Barbican Hall with the London Contemporary Orchestra, at Walt Disney Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and at the San Francisco Symphony’s Soundbox series. From 2018-2024, Britell was a member of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Collaborative Partners at the San Francisco Symphony. Ever passionate about working with the next generation of musicians, Britell speaks often and gives masterclasses at conservatories and universities including the Eastman School of Music, Harvard University, Columbia University, New York University, the Mannes School of Music, USC, Berklee College of Music, and Vassar College. In 2023, Britell launched his own record label, Lake George Music Group; the Succession Season 4 album was its first release.