John Nelson

Conductor John Nelson has earned recognition for his expertise in choral-orchestral repertoire, with a particular focus on the compositions of Berlioz, while also guiding the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra from its origins as a seasonal organization to a prominent American institution.

Born on December 6, 1941, in San José, Costa Rica, to American missionary parents, Nelson developed an early familiarity with sacred choral traditions. He pursued undergraduate studies at Wheaton College, the Illinois Christian school, before advancing to the Juilliard School in New York, where Jean Paul Morel instructed him in conducting and the institution bestowed upon him its Irving Berlin Award.

Once his formal training concluded, Nelson established himself as a freelance conductor in New York, directing satirical P.D.Q. Bach presentations devised by composer-humorist Peter Schickele, leading the Greenwich Philharmonia along with New Jersey Pro Arte, and joining the conducting roster at the Metropolitan Opera. In 1972 he directed Bizet’s Carmen at the New York City Opera. His New York concert presentation of Berlioz’s Les Troyens—the first such performance in the city—resulted in a 1973 Metropolitan Opera assignment for the same work, undertaken on short notice when illness sidelined Rafael Kubelik. Nelson also introduced Britten’s Owen Wingrave to American audiences at the Santa Fe Opera.

Nelson assumed leadership of the Indianapolis Symphony in 1976. There he introduced contemporary scores by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich and Charles Martin Loeffler, refined the ensemble’s tonal quality, converted it into a year-round, fifty-two-week organization, revived its recording activity—beginning with Zwilich’s Symphony No. 1 in 1986—and relocated performances to the Circle Theater in downtown Indianapolis. From 1983 he served as music director of the Caramoor Festival in Katonah, New York, and from 1985 he held the same post at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Health difficulties prompted him to relinquish these roles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, after which he resumed freelance engagements, concentrating primarily on Europe. In addition to major American ensembles, he appeared with the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Oslo Philharmonic, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

In 1998 Nelson accepted the music directorship of the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris under an annual fourteen-week commitment. With that orchestra he recorded a complete Beethoven symphony cycle for the Ambroisie label, issued in 2006. He departed the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris in 2008 yet continued guest conducting and recording, while also acting as artistic director of the choir Soli Deo Gloria. A pair of well-received Berlioz projects appeared on the Erato label in 2019: the Requiem, Op. 5, performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, and the opera La Damnation de Faust. Erato issued his 2022 account of Berlioz’s song cycle Les Nuits d’été, Op. 7, paired with the viola concerto Harold en Italie, Op. 16. At that stage his discography exceeded thirty entries.