Discipline: Music Composition

Larry Nelson

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Swarthmore, PA
MacDowell Fellowships: 1973, 1975, 1976, 1983

Larry Nelson is a composer whose chamber works have been performed by such musical groups as the Percussion Group Cincinnati, the Millennium Chamber Music Society, Orchestra 2001, the Huntingdon Trio, the New Music Society of Syracuse, Le Nouveau Music Ensemble, the Pennsylvania Chamber Players, the Penn Contemporary Players, Settlement Music School Contemporary Players, and the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble. His solo pieces have been performed by well-known artists, including Sylvia Glickman, Harvey Price, Igor Popovic, Thomas Flaherty, Pamela Guidetti, Su Lian Tan, Alice Chan, Matthew Levy, Diane Gold, Barry Hannigan, Lina Bahn, Mary Thorne, Sharla Nofziger, Christina Jennings, and Clara Kim as well as many performers of the WCU Applied Faculty. Nelson has composed works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestra, and the electronic medium. Some of his more recent creative efforts have often involved real-time interactive computer processing of acoustic instruments. Nelson’s music is published by Theodore Presser and by Carl Fischer and recordings of his works are on Albany, CRI, Black Canyon and EAM labels. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and Meet the Composer. Fellowships have come from the Norlin Foundation and MacDowell, as well as several awards for individual compositions.

Studios

Van Zorn (formerly Kirby)

Larry Nelson worked in the Van Zorn (formerly Kirby) studio.

Constructed thanks to a bequest from Sarah L. Kirby, Kirby Studio was the last new building to be erected during Mrs. MacDowell’s leadership (1907-1951). The load-bearing masonry walls were laid by local mason Augustus Beaulieu atop a fieldstone foundation. A 1995 renovation preserved the brick fireplace with wooden mantel and…

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