All that Jazz with Music Director Alva Nelson

Faculty Profile, 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.

Alva's wife daughter mother and sister

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.

Kashmere Stage Band

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. Please tell us more about how you got started and what brought you to Storm King?

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.

University and that is when I decided music would be my life’s work. It was also about that time that I wanted to leave Texas. I was coming of age as a musician, and that was part of it.

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

When I moved to New York in the early 1980s to work with Billy Harper, I met many native New Yorkers and I found my place. I was making it work and making a living through music. Things really changed when I got a gig with the Boys Choir of Harlem. We did concerts all over the country and the world. Before I knew it, 20 years or so had passed. I remember when my dad came to see me perform at Carnegie Hall in 2000. I got him a limo and he had box seats. Afterwards, we went for lunch and reveled in the fact that we both had come a long way. It was a glorious time.

After living in the city for so long, I moved to Westchester County. I was put in contact with SKS through the parent of a student who saw me perform at a show in New Jersey and contacted me on social media. I didn’t know her well, but she encouraged me to check out Storm King. I called and was asked to come to campus for an interview. From the moment I arrived, I was mesmerized. I immediately felt like I belonged and that I was a part of the community. I passed up a job at a public school for the arts to join the residential faculty at Storm King. I think we (my wife, daughter, and I) are still on ‘Cloud 9’ and have to calm ourselves down sometimes.”

Conrad "Prof" Johnson

You have always encouraged our students’ involvement in Black History Month. What can you tell us about this?

“Black history is American history. If you aren’t talking about it as a part American history, you’re not doing it justice. History changes how we move forward, and changes our thinking. That’s why, in my office, every month is Black History Month! I want kids to know about important, as well as obscure Black figures, especially women.

Storm King is an international community, but Black History Month is uniquely American. Many kids don’t know about Thurgood Marshall, for example. In my opinion, race shouldn’t be viewed as ‘us against them,’ it’s about how Blacks have contributed to this country. I love Frederick Douglas and Malcom X, but we need to talk about what Blacks are doing now. Often times, we’re too quick to jump on these past figures. We need to delve into the present and focus on what Black youth are doing today. This will help not only Blacks, but all of us. Black history must become American history.”

Can you express your vision and your personal mission at SKS? What do you hope to achieve here?

“I want Storm King to be the go-to school for the Arts, and for music. I want kids to see that we do something special here–that they can get a wellrounded education and still be prepared for college and a career in music, if that is the path they choose. Our aim is to produce wonderful humans. Music and the arts are a great support in developing this.

Mrs. Fulton [SKS Performing Arts Chair] and I are always working on the curriculum and finding new ways to engage the students. I want to create a way of teaching where they can progress musically, but also do music just for music’s sake.

Music is one of the most difficult things to teach virtually, so this past year with COVID-19 has been very difficult. Getting on the bus to perform is one of the highlights for students learning music, and the lack of live performances has been the most difficult, so I think we’ve regressed a bit in terms of enthusiasm. But, this is temporary. My goal is to create a permanent school band or ensemble that can travel and perform, both to motivate the students and to show others what we do. Our wish is to enroll good, college-bound students who are also talented musicians.

The best thing I can do is offer my students what I’ve learned over the course of my professional life. That is, just keep music in your life. I’ve had it around me every day since I was eight years old, and I’m not bored yet! You can’t choose music, it chooses you.”

Kashmere Vinyl