Nathaniel Brickens currently serves as the trombone professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In recognition of his teaching, he has received several awards and has served as an artist/clinician at the Illinois Trombone Symposium, the Texas Trombone Symposium, the Siouxland Trombone Festival, the Eastern Trombone Workshop, the Music Educator's National Conference, the Texas Music Educators Convention, the Illinois Summer Youth Music Camp, and the 1997 and 1998 International Trombone Festivals.

As a free-lance trombonist, Brickens has performed with the Saint Louis Symphony, the Houston Symphony, the State Ballet of Missouri, the Kansas City Symphony, the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, Austin Lyric Opera, and with a wide variety of popular artists. He has toured nationally as trombonist in the Texas Opera Theater Orchestra (the touring arm of the Houston Grand Opera), the Paragon Brass Ensemble, and the Chicago-based Black Music Repertory Ensemble. He has performed on NBC's Today Show, in Europe, the Caribbean, and on the stage of many of our nation's finest concert halls. Several of those concerts have been heard by millions on National Public Radio and Public Radio International broadcasts.

An active ITA member, Brickens is Manager of the ITA Press, serves on the organization's Literature and Publications Committee, and has written articles and reviews for the ITA Journal. He holds degrees from the University of Texas (DMA), the University of Michigan (MM), and Southern University (BM), and serves as an artist/clinician for Bach/Selmer.