Raised in North Pole, Alaska, Eliesha Nelson joined the Young Artists Program at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) and began attending Hathaway Brown School at age 15. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from CIM and an artist diploma from the Royal Academy of Music in London. After switching to viola, Ms. Nelson studied with Robert Vernon (principal viola of The Cleveland Orchestra) while pursuing her master’s degree at CIM. Her violin teachers included David Russell, György Pauk, and Linda Cerone.
Prior to her appointment with The Cleveland Orchestra, Ms. Nelson served as acting principal viola of both the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra and the Florida Grand Opera Orchestra. She has appeared as a soloist with the Florida Philharmonic and the San Antonio Symphony and in Northern Ohio with the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra, Lakeside Symphony Orchestra, and Ohio Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Nelson’s honors include the Dr. Jerome Gross Prize in Violin (CIM) and the Marjorie Haywood Violin Recital Prize from the Royal Academy of Music. In September 2009, Ms. Nelson released a recording of the complete viola music of Quincy Porter.
Permutations
This album is comprised of five virtuosic viola pieces that look at aspects of American music. The five different composers on this recording have all created technically challenging works of strikingly disparate character. All of the composers are American with one exception: Russian Nikolai Kapustin, included because he incorporates American jazz elements in his music. In the last twenty years technology has made the world a smaller place in the sense that ideas and art forms can be exchanged much more easily across cultures. It is interesting to observe the manner in which aspects of American music have been incorporated into other musical traditions and compare that with the myriad ways these ideas are understood in the United States.