Eric Nestler

Eric Nestler has been on the faculty of the University of North Texas College of Music since 1992, is currently Distinguished Teaching Profesor of Saxophone and the Chair of the Division of Instrumental Studies. Nestler served as a member of the summer music faculty at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada and has taught on the faculty of Vincennes University, IN. In 2019, and again in 2024, Nestler was awarded the University Distinguished Teaching Professorship and in 2021, received the President’s Council Teaching Award.  

Beginning in 1992, Nestler’s creative trajectory focused primarily on the performance of solo and chamber recitals in regional, national and international venues and since that time, presented nearly 500 separate performances. Highlights from the first part of Nestler’s career include the performance of a solo/chamber recital in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall with colleagues from UNT as part of the MidAmerica Productions; the performance of music by Czech composer, Jindřich Feld, in the Palffy Palace at the Prague Conservatory with the composer in attendance; the performance of the Concerto by Karel Husa with the composer conducting the UNT Wind Ensemble; and the performance of various recital tours to exotic and international locations including The Czech Republic (the Janáček Academy, Brno), Hungary (the Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest), South Africa (the Universities of Stellenbosch and Cape Town), China (the Sichuan Conservatory, the Shanghai Conservatory, Xinghai and Huanan Universities and the Beijing Central Conservatory), Hong Kong (the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts), Thailand (the Mahidol University, Salaya), Italy (the Castelfranco Conservatory, Veneto), Canada (Fredericton, NB) and England (the Royal Conservatory of Music in London and Huddersfield University).  

As an international artist, Nestler was a featured soloist and/or lecturer at World Saxophone Congresses in Montreal (Canada), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Bangkok (Thailand), Edinburgh (Scotland) Strasbourg (France), and Zagreb (Croatia) as well as other international saxophone conventions such as the First Southeast Asia Saxophone Convention (Bangkok, 2004) and both the First and Second Annual Asian Saxophone Conventions (Taiwan, 2017 and Shanghai, 2019). 

In the United States, Nestler performed solo recital tours of Alabama, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Washington State, and of course, Texas. Also in the US, Nestler frequently performed at international saxophone conventions beginning at the University of West Virginia and later, University of Florida, University of Arizona, University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and the University of South Carolina in Columbia. After 2008, Nestler presented lectures and/or lecture-recitals at the conventions at the University of Georgia in Athens, Arizona State University, University of Illinois-Champaign/Urbana, Texas Tech University, and the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.  

In 1995, Nestler hosted a regional saxophone convention and in 2002, an international saxophone convention at UNT. This event was considered so successful, that it was used as a model for subsequent conferences both in the US and abroad, both for saxophone and other musical disciplines. In 2003, Nestler served as the Executive Vice President for the XIII World Saxophone Congress held at the University of Minnesota School of Music, assisting Dr. Eugene Rousseau, to organize this event and subsequently, was elected to two terms of the International Saxophone Committee. Nestler hosted the UNT Saxophone Alumni Days in 2022 and 2023 and in October 2024, he co-hosted the first-ever, China-United States Saxophone Art Festival (CUSSAF) on the campus of the University of North Texas College of Music with Professor Li Yusheng of the Sichuan Conservatory. Nineteen premieres of new works for saxophone occurred including seven new concerti at CUSSAF. During this event, Nestler presented a lecture – in Mandarin Chinese – discussing compositional curiosities surrounding the Concerto by Henri Tomasi. 

As a significant part of scholarly activities during the first half of Nestler’s career, he commissioned composers to write sophisticated art-music for the saxophone. Chief among these is the Sonata by David Dzubay, and as part of the Worldwide Concurrent Commission and Premiere Fund, Nestler participated in the commissioning of, and premiering of, Sonatas by John Harbison and Gunther Schuller. Nestler premiered, and recorded, UNT composer Dr. Joseph Klein’s Pathways: Interior Shadows and Die Müde. In 1996, he recorded a master class CD for the Saxophone Journal addressing and demonstrating Baroque Ornamentation for the saxophone. 

In 2008, Nestler’s musical life dramatically changed in an unexpected and devasting way and in 2009, he was formally diagnosed with the movement disorder known as musician’s focal dystonia, or embouchure dystonia. This crippling disorder essentially ended Nestler’s performing career and necessitated the need to discover new avenues of creativity to be relevant and productive in the musical world. 

In the second half of his career, Nestler turned to writing and publishing articles about concert music for the saxophone. His articles addressing the solo and quartet repertoire of Alfrèd Desenclos, Jindřich Feld, Florent Schmitt, and Marilyn Shrude have been published and his article providing a thorough and minutely detailed analysis of the Concerto by Henri Tomasi resulted in the creation of a critical edition of this famous standard, used by many saxophonists and students today.  

During the time Nestler was unable to play the saxophone, he learned to speak Mandarin Chinese and ultimately, presented lecture-recitals – in Mandarin, at institutions such as the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music, the China Conservatory of Music (Beijing), the Sichuan Conservatory of Music (Chengdu) and the Sias Conservatory of Music (Zhengzhou) – performing, addressing, and explaining the highly complex unaccompanied saxophone literature of Luciano Berio, Bernhard Rands, as well as the specific pedagogical techniques of saxophone high tone production. Most recently, Nestler presented a lecture in Mandarin during the China-United States Saxophone Art Festival. 

Eric Nestler earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education, Summa Cum Laude, from Susquehanna University (Selinsgrove, PA) where he was a student of Donald Beckie and Mary Hannigan. Nestler received both the Master of Music degree in Woodwind Instruments, with High Distinction, and the Doctor of Music Literature and Performance degree in Saxophone, Clarinet, and Bassoon, with High Distinction, from the Indiana University School of Music (Bloomington, IN). His primary teachers include Eugene Rousseau (saxophone), James Campbell (clarinet), and Sidney Rosenberg (bassoon). Nestler studied all the woodwind instruments: he studied saxophone with Daniel Deffayet, Ted Hegvik, Kenneth Fischer, and Ramon Ricker; clarinet with Earl Bates, Ave Galper, Howard Klug, and Ignatius Gennusa; bassoon with Rodney Ackman; flute with Suzanne Duffy, Ann Fenlason, and Casey Kovacik; and oboe with Laura Goetz.