Nancy Galbraith was born in Pittsburgh in 1951. An exceptional musical talent was clear from the time she began piano lessons at the age of four. When eighteen she entered Ohio University moving on to West Virginia University for her post-graduate work. She concluded her studies in composition, now her primary interest, at Carnegie Mellon University with Leonardo Balada.
Nancy Galbraith has remained in Pittsburgh involved in a wide range of musical activities. She guards her composition time jealously subdividing her time so that teaching at Carnegie Mellon and directing music at Christ Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh do not impinge.
In the twenty years that she has been composing she has built a wide ranging catalogue with many works that have gone on to repeat performances. Particularly impressive has been her success with wind ensembles. Both with brightness round about it and If Rachael in a Yellow Rose have entered the repertoire. However it is misleading to highlight any one idiom in a composer who has written in such diverse idioms. From piano to chorus, orchestra to string quartet she is equally at home and successful.
As she has composed so interest has grown. Commissions from major ensembles, particularly repeat commissions from the Pittsburgh Symphony, have become the basis of her development. And in their wake have come honors and awards. She has received among many others awards for Creative Advancement for the International Festival of Contemporary Music in Poland, the Ohio University Outstanding Alumni award and ASCAP awards.
Her music is widely recorded. A CD that included her First Piano Concerto (with Ralph Zitterbart conducted by Keith Lockhart) was accorded the unusual distinction of being selected for the USAir classical channel. Carnegie Mellon CDs of her wind music have been widely circulated while a further CD of her chamber music headed by the First String Quartet has been an unqualified success. Nancy Galbraith has also written with great distinction for chorus. Her weekly preparation of service music has given her a rare insight into the choral idiom which works like Missa Mysteriorum and Gloria Te Deum exploit to the full.
Nancy Galbraith is published exclusively by Subito Music Publishing. Besides composing she is on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University and is Director of Music at Christ Lutheran Church in Pittsburgh.