R.J. Nestor is a composer, lyricist, writer, screenwriter, music director, voice teacher, piano accompanist, liturgical musician, and conductor based in Morgantown, West Virginia and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
R.J. composed the music, wrote the lyrics, and collaborated with David Scoville to create the book for the musical Love's Sick, which visits the "show-within-a-show" concept in a surprising new way, and explores the importance of communication in relationships. By the Stars, another of their musicals, will soon be workshopped and receive a staged reading in Chicago. By the Stars was conceived by R.J. and John Nasca. R.J. and David are also active screenwriters. One of their screenplays, The Shield of Athena, is a quarter-finalist in the BlueCat screenplay competition.
R.J. has music directed 50 musical theatre productions since 2000, including The Sound of Music, West Side Story, and My Fair Lady with West Virginia Public Theatre, Assassins and Children of Eden at the Robert Morris University Colonial Theatre in Pittsburgh, and Bat Boy at West Virginia University. He has appeared onstage in Camelot (Lancelot), Seussical (Horton), The Full Monty (Marty), and The Will Rogers Follies (Wiley Post), among others.
R.J. has maintained a private voice studio since 2001. He was twice selected by outstanding high-school sophomore students as their most influential arts instructor when they were attending the West Virginia Governor's School for the Arts. His students focus on consistent breathing and relaxed, open space, finding and developing their natural voices in the process. He also is a professional piano accompanist, serving more than forty West Virginia University voice students over the past four years.
R.J. has composed incidental music for productions of Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Strindberg’s The Ghost Sonata, Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, and the Glitterati Productions Chicago premiere of Ken Ludwig's Moon Over Buffalo. His classical compositions have been performed at venues in the United States and Europe.
R.J. is the Director of Liturgical Music at St. Luke the Evangelist Catholic Church in Morgantown, following ten years of service as the Minister of Music at First Presbyterian Church in Fairmont, West Virginia. He served for two seasons as Interim and Associate Conductor of the North Pittsburgh Philharmonic, and he conducted the West Virginia University Community Arts Orchestra from 2002 - 2004.
R.J. holds an undergraduate degree in Music Composition, with an emphasis in Voice, and a graduate degree in Performance: Conducting, both from West Virginia University. He and his wife Elisha reside in Morgantown, WV.