Dr Nagir | Arden Reimer | The Wright State Guardian
Wright State University performing arts school welcomes new professor Dr. Nathan Nagir, who oversees all choral programs in the new fine and performing arts school.
Background and goals
Nagir began a 15-year journey of music education in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, joining choir at just eight years old.
“I was very bossy as a kid, so I needed to find a career that would allow me to tell people what to do, and what other better opportunity than to be a choir director, telling choirs how to fix their sound, how to shape certain things, just pretty much telling them what to do,” Nagir said.
At the age of 25, Nagir moved to the United States to pursue music, which was unavailable in the twin isles, at Texas State University in 2017. In the spring of 2022, the director finished doctoral studies at The University of Texas at Austin, which accepts one person to the Doctor of Musical Arts – Choral Conducting program.
Despite offers from an alma mater, Nagir chose WSU because of the director position and potential of the program.
“When I came here and I auditioned, I really liked hearing the stories of some of these kids, or at least from faculty,” Nagir said. “There are a lot of kids here who are not as privileged or not as wealthy or come from wealthy families, and I understand that because I came from that sort of system as well, where you want to help as best as you can. Kids and students who have that potential, you want to give them the same resources.”
Nagir hopes to provide resources and support that were personally unavailable growing up. One way that Nagir is expressing this is through separation of choirs by vocal tone, such as tenor and treble-bass, rather than gender.
“A lot of students are identifying differently and rightly so. We need to make these accommodations for so that we all feel more comfortable,” Nagir said.
Assistant Director of the LGBTQ+ Center Emily Yantis-Houser agrees with this new approach.
“I think it makes a lot of sense to follow the music and the tones rather than the gender. It opens up the possibilities or opportunities for folks because outside of being inclusive of all genders, there may be folks that have varying tones that present as one gender or the other, but they can’t be a part of it because it’s ‘men’ or ‘women,’” Yantis-Houser said.
Students of choral studies
Voice Performance and Music Education major Cyerra Pemberton voiced positive thoughts about Nagir.
“Dr. Nathan Nagir has been such a wonderful addition to the WSU choral program. He is energetic, friendly and very dedicated to pushing our ensembles toward greatness. Dr. Nagir does a wonderful job of sharing his experiences and wisdom with students,” Pemberton said.
Nagir finds that one of the most rewarding parts of the position is seeing how students grow over time.
“It’s sort of interesting to me to see where the students have started, where they come from at the beginning of the semester, all of the habits, all of the things that they might not know how to do and have an idea but not know how to execute it, as opposed to getting to the end of the semester where they are now,” Nagir said. “Sometimes they fail and then have to rebuild, which is all a part of it.”
