Nasar Abadey
Jazz Percussion
Drummer and composer Nasar Abadey is the founder, leader and driving force of SUPERNOVA®. He has performed with Amiri Baraka, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Rouse, Gary Bartz, David Sanchez, Cyrus Chestnut, Sonny Fortune, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, Kenny Kirkland, Gary Thomas, Stanley Turrentine, Sun Ra, Frank Morgan, Bobby Hutcherson, Pharaoh Sanders, Malachi Thompson, and many others. Additionally, he has appeared in various festivals including, San Remo (Italy), Montreal (Canada), Cap City (DC), Virgin Island (Caribbean), JVC (NYC), Morocco (Africa), Chicago Jazz Festival, Iowa City Jazz Festival, D.C. Loft Jazz Festival, Atlanta Jazz Festival, Mellon Bank Jazz Festival (Philadelphia), East Coast Jazz Festival, Free World Jazz Festival (DC), International Children's Festival (Seattle), Guatemala City Jazz Festival, among others.
Abadey has been awarded grants for performance, merit and composition, by the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, the D.C. Commission for the Arts, Creative Arts Performance Services (CAPS), the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, and the Prince George's Arts Council, respectively. In addition, he has served as music panelist for the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and Humanities, and the D.C. Commission for the Arts, and is a board member of the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts (WALA).
Though his travels have taken him to Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and throughout the USA, he still finds time to teach privately and perform workshops in the Washington, DC and the surrounding area public schools for Young Audiences, the Prince George's Arts Council, and the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz.
