He has done additional conducting studies with Larry Rachleff, Mark Gibson, Jerry Junkin, and Alan Mitchell.
Nakahara was featured in the American Symphony Orchestra League's National Conductor Preview in March 2005.
An advocate of new music, Nakahara has collaborated with notable contemporary composers as Steve Reich, Michael Torke, Augusta Read Thomas, Azio Corghi, Menachem Zur, and Yasuhide Ito.
In April 2008, Nakahara was named the music director of the South Carolina Philharmonic, based in Columbia.
In 2017, Nakahara was named assistant professor and director of Orchestral Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Department of Music, where he leads the UMass Symphony Orchestra.