Nicolás Lell Benavides’ music has been praised for finding “…a way to sketch complete characters in swift sure lines…” (Washington Post) and cooking up a “jaunty score [with] touches of cabaret, musical theater and Latin dance” (OPERA NEWS.) He has received commissions from groups like The New York Philharmonic/The Juilliard School, the LA Phil, Eighth Blackbird, New Century Chamber Orchestra with Daniel Hope, SFCM Orchestra with Edwin Outwater, West Edge Opera, Washington National Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, Music of Remembrance, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Fry Street Quartet, Friction Quartet, Brightwork Ensemble, and Khemia Ensemble. His music has received support from organizations such as the American Composers Forum, The Barlow Endowment, New Music USA, Opera America, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Nicolás is the recipient of a 2024 Guggenheim Fellowship, allowing him to focus on creative work. His opera about civil rights icon Dolores Huerta, with libretto by Marella Martin Koch, will premiere with West Edge Opera, San Diego Opera, The BroadStage, and Opera Southwest in the 2025-26 season. He is also developing a comic opera called Caravana de mujeres with librettist Laura Barati as part of MassOpera’s New Opera Workshop, which was a featured performance at Opera America’s New Works Forum.

Nicolás was the first ever Young Artist Composer in Residence at The Glimmerglass Festival and was also a fellow at the Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab, the Del Mar International Composers Symposium, and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music Composing Earth Initiative. He was the first featured composer/conductor of San Diego Symphony’s Currents series, conducting his opera Tres minutos (libretto by Martin Koch.)

Nicolás has studied at Santa Clara University, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and at the USC Thornton School of Music, where he currently serves on faculty.