D. Riley Nicholson is a composer, pianist, and arts management professional, equally committed to creating original work, supporting other artists, and leading arts organizations. Nicholson has composed and performed for a wide range of ensembles and performance venues including music for contemporary ballet, theater, orchestra, wind band, film, chamber music, vocal music, and electronic music. He was honored as the CAPMT Distinguished Composer of the Year in 2018.
Large ensemble works include Stacks, which was runner up for NYC's Vanguard Composer initiative in 2025, and as such was workshopped by the Queer Urban Orchestra. The work received its world premiere in 2026 with the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music orchestra led by conductor Cristian Măcelaru. San Francisco Classical Voice characterized the work as, "a short concerto for orchestra," with "glistening strings and... a kinetic sense of continual movement." His work One, for large string orchestra headlined Hot Air Music Festival in 2016.
Notable chamber music projects include projects include an Intermusic SF-supported commission for Amaranth String Quartet; an album-length work, UP commissioned and premiered by pianists Sarah Cahill and Regina Myers; and Holy for electric guitar trio commissioned by Harjo. His music discography of 7+ albums also includes chamber works for cello quartet, percussion sextet, and electroacoustic works.
A frequent collaborator with choreographers, Nicholson has been commissioned by David Herrera Performance Company to produce music for two separate full length productions, Tip of My Tongue and Resurrection of Everyday People, both of which were later released as albums. Nicholson also created Return for Jeremy Bannon-Neches with ODC in San Francisco, original music for Cecily Khuner with Ballet Memphis, and original music for two dance films with Robin Dekkers through Post:ballet.
Nicholson is also a contemporary music pianist and multi-disciplinary producer. Nicholson composed, produced, and performed Shimmer, for piano, visuals, and electronics which toured nationally in 2018. In 2019, his performance of the music of Julius Eastman was described as a "powerful, ingeniously wrought rendition." (SF Chronicle). Nicholson will perform alongside members of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, in the upcoming world premiere of his work Refugium, commissioned by the Arkansas Museum of Fine Art in October 2026.
Nicholson has fostered growth and connectedness in the arts through his previous roles as Executive Director of the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas, Project Manager for the Center for New Music, and roles at Post:ballet, Dance Film SF, and Berkeley Ballet Theatre. Nicholson is currently serving on the Board of Directors of The Living Earth Show and is the Executive Director of the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the longest running and preeminent festival dedicated to new music for orchestra, based in Santa Cruz, CA.
Riley has an M.M. in composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a B.M. in percussion performance, and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Memphis.