Nik Rodewald, whose orchestration work as has been called, “unfailingly lovely” by Fanfare Magazine, is a composer, arranger, and saxophonist, whose work has been featured at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater, the Lawrence and Alma Berk Recital Hall, as well as churches, houses, and basements across the Eastern United States.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, Nik began his musical career playing saxophone in various jazz bands throughout the Middle Tennessee area.  While still in high school, he began working as an assistant recording engineer for Kevin McKendree (Delbert McClinton, John Oates, Brian Setzer) at Rock House Recording in Franklin, TN, where he worked on projects for various blues and rock artists, including Reese Wynans, Anson Funderburgh, Sean Chambers, and Tinsley Ellis.  

Nik moved to Boston, Massachusetts, in September 2011 to attend Berklee College of Music, where he studied jazz composition with Ayn Inserto and Scott Free.  Nik received the 2014 Clare Fischer Jazz Composition Award and graduated summa cum laude from Berklee in 2015.

After graduating from Berklee and moving to Washington, DC, Nik released his first album, To The Immaculate Virgin (On a Winter's Night), in 2016. In 2017, Nik founded the contemporary sacred music ensemble, The Radiant Obscurity Collective, which subsequently toured throughout the East Coast. The Radiant Obscurity Collective’s self-titled, debut album, released in October 2018, has been called “haunting and poignant … these songs carry the feeling of solitude” (Eve Tushnet, Patheos).

In 2018, Nik was commissioned by the Catholic University of America as the arranger/orchestrator for Leonard Bernstein at 100: The Theatre Songs of Leonard Bernstein, which was performed at both Arena Stage and the Kennedy Center. During the same year, “Le Tombeau Enceint” was selected for premiere at the 2018 New Music DC Conference at Georgetown University, sponsored by the DC New Music Coalition. In 2021, Nik served as the orchestrator for the world premiere of Unlimited: The Music and Lyrics of Stephen Schwartz. Created by Zak Sandler, Joshua Morgan, and Matt Cowart, Unlimited is the first musical revue of Stephen Schwartz’s theater songs.

Rodewald’s orchestration work is also featured on thirteen art songs by New York-based composer Eric Schorr on his critically-acclaimed album, New York Pretending to be Paris, released in September 2022 on Albany Records. Reviews have highlighted Rodewald’s work, saying that the orchestrations, “elevate [the songs] grandly” (Textura) and that they are, “unfailingly lovely and transparent, always complementing (and never interfering with) the singer and his or her narrative” (Fanfare).

Nik’s compositions, arrangements, and orchestrations have also been performed at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church (Kensington, MD); Maryland Classics Youth Orchestra (Strathmore, Bethesda, MD); St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church (Washington, DC); and Marist School (Atlanta, GA).