Praised for its "sharp and precise imagery," (The Utah Review) the music of Nicolas Chuaqui has been recognized for its interest and imagination. Most recently, he was a winner of the 2020 Ortus International New Music Competition, as well as one of four finalists for the 2020 ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commissioning Prize. His acoustic music has been heard at many of the country's prominent showcases for young composers, such as June in Buffalo, and has been performed by such well-recognized ensembles as the Arditti Quartet and The Crossing. His music incorporating electronic media has been featured at several notable venues, such as the International Computer Music Conference, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, and Diffrazioni Multimedia Festival (Florence, Italy). His vocal and operatic music has been awarded by various organizations, and his first opera, The Forest of Dreams, was premiered in a fully-staged production by New Voices Opera (Bloomington, Indiana) in 2016. In addition to composition, Chuaqui is active as a performer, and his improvisatory compositional process draws on a lifetime of experience. Chuaqui is currently a DMA Candidate at the Eastman School of Music, where he has taught music theory and composition and organized new music concerts as a graduate assistant. He also holds degrees from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music and Dartmouth College.