Upper Valley Symphony Orchestra

Mark Nelson

Music Director

A multifaceted musician with wide-ranging musical interests, Mark Nelson has over 30 years’ experience conducting instrumental and choral ensembles in schools, colleges, and communities. He developed the instrumental-music program at Lake Forest College, led brass, chamber, and new-music ensembles at Wabash College, directed the orchestra at the Webb Schools, and conducted performances of Company, Les Misérables, The Threepenny Opera, and Working at various sites. He has launched electronic-music programs at two colleges and three independent secondary schools. With degrees from Yale (B.A.), Princeton (Ph.D.), and Harvard (Ed.M.), and having undertaken additional graduate study of Javanese gamelan and South Indian classical music at Wesleyan, he is deeply committed to promoting among ensemble members, audiences, and students of music theory, composition, and history the joys of musical discovery.