Ted Nash is a recipient of two Grammy® Awards and has been nominated several times for his many musical works. His most significant work, Presidential Suite, was inspired by great political speeches of the 20th century dealing with the theme of freedom. Nash transcribed the speeches for their actual musical pitches and created themes, placing them into contexts that embraced the speakers and the location and era of the speeches. For the recording, each track is introduced by an excerpt from the speech that inspired it, read by significant figures from the world of entertainment, politics and sports, including actors Glenn Close and Sam Waterston; Ambassador Andrew Young; Senator Joe Lieberman; authors Deepak Chopra and Douglas Brinkley; diplomats William vanden Heuvel and David Miliband.

Nash also composed Portrait in Seven Shades, a suite that consists of seven movements, each inspired by a master of modern art who worked in the century around the apex of jazz: Chagall, Dali, Matisse, Monet, Picasso, Pollock and Van Gogh. It was released by Jazz at Lincoln Center and performed by the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JALC) with Wynton Marsalis. Nash has performed with JALC on alto and soprano saxophone, flute and clarinet for 25 years.

Nash was born in Los Angeles into a musical family (his father, Dick Nash, and uncle, the late Ted Nash, were both well-known jazz and studio musicians). He has that uncanny ability to mix freedom with substance, blues with intellect, and risk-taking with clarity. He is a co-founder of the New York-based Jazz Composers Collective, a musician-run, non-profit innovative entity dedicated to presenting the original works of composers pushing the boundaries of their self-expression.

Nash has become one of the most significant jazz composers of the 21st century. His recordings have received wide critical acclaim, appearing on the “best-of” lists in the New York Times, the New Yorker, the Village Voice, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe; and have charted on Billboard.