Todd Nichols currently serves as Director of University Bands and Area Head of Conducting at Rutgers University. His duties include administration of the university band program and instrumental conducting area, directing the Marching Scarlet Knights and Symphonic Winds, and teaching graduate conducting. As Director of the MSK, Dr. Nichols led highly acclaimed performances at the 2025 London Band Week, Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, NFL’s Monday Night Football, Music for All Grand Nationals finals performance, and for United States President Joseph Biden. Dr. Nichols served as a Guest Lecturer at New York University and Columbia University, is Past President of the Big Ten Band Director’s National Association and has commissioned forty-five new works for wind band.
Dr. Nichols annually serves as a guest conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and recording producer and is especially honored to have guest conducted the United States Army Field Band. In addition, he serves as artistic director for the Princeton Brass Band and the Eastern Wind Symphony, a position he has held since 2010. Dr. Nichols conducted highly acclaimed performances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center and records regularly with the EWS. Under his direction has been invited to perform at numerous major music conventions including the 2021 and 2015 Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.
For nineteen years, Dr. Nichols served as Director of Bands at Roxbury and Edison High Schools in New Jersey, where his ensembles were recognized nationally for excellence. Dr. Nichols has co-authored two articles published in The Journal of Band Research and WASBE Journal and was inducted into the prestigious American Bandmasters Association and American School Band Directors Association in 2016. Dr. Nichols received the 2022 Rutgers University Transfer Student Champion Award, two Citations of Excellence from the National Band Association, and NJ the Governor’s Teacher Recognition Award.
Nichols was published in The Conductor’s Companion – 100 Rehearsal Techniques, Imaginative Ideas, Quotes, and Facts. He was inducted into the American Bandmasters Association and American School Band Directors Association in 2016, received the NBA Citation of Excellence, the NJ Governor’s Teacher Recognition Award, and was featured in an article for the Instrumentalist Magazine. His professional affiliations include the B1G, NBA, AFM, and CBDNA.
Nichols resides in Hillsborough, NJ, with his wife, Beth, and daughters Sarah and Emily.
