Nick was 2016's winner of the Heartland Symphony Annual Composition Competition and in 2018 was commissioned by the Washington National Opera for a 20-minute chamber opera as part of their American Composers Initiative. He was invited to be a part of both the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy in 2018. Formerly the first managing director of Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Nick is now a doctoral student at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music. www.nickbenavides.com