FACULTY PROFILE
ALL THAT JAZZ WITH
MUSIC DIRECTOR ALVA NELSON BY ELIZABETH WILSON TAVILOGLU P’19
“In music, you have to stay active,” explains Alva Nelson, Storm King’s music director. “You must write, record, perform, and teach. If you don’t do all four, you aren’t complete.” Now in his fourth year at SKS, Mr. Nelson has become an integral part of the Performing Arts Department and a favorite faculty member and mentor of his students, all while he continues to create and perform music that is diverse, sophisticated, and exhilarating. The son of a Pentecostal minister, Mr. Nelson grew up in Houston, Texas, and was exposed to music from a young age. “I didn’t know I was going to be a musician then, but I was surrounded by music,” he says. By the age of eight, he was singing with the All Houston Boys Choir, and later, studying piano and saxophone at Houston’s Kashmere High School. “The schools weren’t integrated then, so it wasn’t really ‘All Houston’ to me. But, I was surrounded by great music and I had great teachers and mentors,” Mr. Nelson explains, referring to the renowned high school band leader Conrad O. Johnson and the school’s famous Kashmere Stage Band. It was while working with Johnson and traveling with the band that Mr. Nelson decided music was his path. Answering his calling, Mr. Nelson went on to attend Sam Houston State University, where he won a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Study Fellowship to study with saxophonist Billy Harper in New York City. His relocation to the “Big Apple” in 1982 was followed by a string of opportunities, awards, and successes as he continued to hone his craft, including three Composer Grants, several first-place wins in the Composers’ Guild Composition Contest, and his selection as a semifinalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. Throughout the 1990s, Mr. Nelson continued to perform, arrange, and orchestrate music for the Boys Choir of Harlem, including engagements at Carnegie Hall and Alice Tully Hall with Wynton Marsalis and Kathleen Battle, and with Hubert Laws and the St. Luke’s Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta. In addition, his cutting-edge arrangement of “Amazing Grace” was featured on the Bill Moyers PBS Special Amazing Grace. After countless performances with every type of ensemble and his band, The Alva Nelson Group, and an emotional reunion of the Kashmere Stage Band to honor Johnson in 2008, Mr. Nelson’s love for music has come full circle. In his most recent persona as an educator, it remains an extremely powerful and spiritual force in his life today. Join us as we get to know Mr. Nelson and how he brings a mix of passion for music, Black history and culture, and a love for teaching music to his students, no matter what their level.
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Please tell us more about how you got started and what brought you to Storm King? “I became a professional, not because of my talent, but from the guidance I received. Also, from a lot of perseverance and hard work. My dad was a Pentecostal minister, so I was always surrounded by music. Many kids I grew up with went on to become singers and musicians. But, dad was difficult. He didn’t see music as a viable career until much later after I moved to New York. I didn’t know I was going to be a musician then, but I did love the music. I started performing around the age of eight in the All Houston Boys Choir. In high school, I had the privilege of being mentored by our high school band director Conrad “Prof” Johnson. He was a great teacher and a great musician. But, I was still just a kid having fun with my band. We happened to become famous. Then, I went to college at Sam Houston State
Conrad "Prof" Johnson
