Composer/ Pianist Nicholas Underhill studied composition at Hampshire College, Amherst College, and  the New England Conservatory of Music.  His composition teachers include Pulitzer Prize winner Lewis Spratlan, William Thomas McKinley,  Donald Wheelock and James McElwaine, as well as consultations with Donald Erb, Margaret Brouwer, and Dennis Eberhard. He has been commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra,  the Gramercy Trio, the Ohio Music Teachers Association, The Fortnightly Musical Club, The Cleveland Flute Society, Cleveland Orchestra players Mary Kay Fink, Takako Masame, Lisa Boyko and Richard King, as well as harpist Jocelyn Chang, saxophonist Greg Banaszak, Soprano Elizabeth Stuart, and the Gramercy Trio

Well  known in Boston and New York City and Cleveland as a champion of new music for the piano, he has performed solo recitals  in Carnegie Recital Hall and Merkin Concert Hall.  He currently teaches composition at Cleveland State University.

During the last season, Underhill has received critical acclaim from Donald Rosenberg for his solo piano albumn, "Light and Sirius", as well as from Bernard Holland, for his Piano Trio #1.  His second Piano Trio was premiered in NY in June of 2008 by the Gramercy Trio on the Bargemusic series in Brooklyn, NY. and will be followed by a performance next Spring in Merkin Concert Hall.