Biography
Daniel Nelson’s music has often been lauded for its colourful orchestration and its rich rhythmic energy, the latter a result of Nelson’s fascination with industrial machinery and mechanical toys. He has mainly written orchestral music, but has also had much success with his works for the dance stage and the opera stage.
Nelson has enjoyed close and extended collaborations with several Swedish orchestras, resulting in works like his Clarinet Concerto, the orchestral fanfare Force of a Rainbow, and his tuba concerto Metallëphônic (2002), the latter of which has since become a standard of the tuba literature. He is frequently been played by the Swedish Radio SO, and has often appeared on their annually televised Epiphany Concert as well as on numerous radio broadcasts. The Swedish Radio commissioned his Chaplin Songs (2020) -an oratorio which sets the final monologue from Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator for orchestra, choir, and soprano-solo- and, more recently, his I Am Monster, an orchestral song cycle written for soprano Johanna Wallroth and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. Other notable works by Nelson is his orchestral fanfare Steampunk Blizzard as well as his concerto for automated player-piano and analogue orchestra, The Rave Chronicles.
Nelson has composed operas for both the Royal Swedish Opera, Sova Vaken (2022), and for the Vadstena-Academy, Pride & Prejudice (2011) and Andefabriken (2023), as well as several ballets and dance works; most notably #Jag (2016) commissioned by the Royal Swedish Opera, and The Little Prince (2015), a ballet commissioned by the Nordic Chamber Orchestra and Norrdans.
Among the many orchestras that have performed Nelson’s music can be mentioned the Munich Philharmonic, Orchestre National d’île de France, Swedish Radio SO, Gothenburg SO, Oslo Philharmonic, Swedish Royal Opera, Stockholm Royal Philharmonic, Tampere Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Trondheim SO, NorrlandsOperan SO, Juneau SO, Danish Radio Sinfonietta, Västerås Sinfonietta, WermlandsOperan SO, Helsingborg SO, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, Gävle SO, Bundesjugendorchester, Manchester Collective, Musica Vitae, Vadstena Opera, and the Royal Swedish Cavalry Band. Nelson has worked with conductors such as Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Manfred Honeck, Andrew Manze, Enrique Mazzola, Vasily Petrenko, Jaime Martin, Hannu Lintu, Eva Ollikainen, Emily Hoving, Clemens Schuldt, Roland Kluttig, David Björkman, Patrik Ringborg, and Eivind Aadland.
In 2015, Nelson received the Carin Malmlöf-Forssling Prize in Composition from the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music (BM, 1989) and the University of Chicago (MA, 1992) where his principle composition teachers were Jean Eichelberger-Ivey and Ralph Shapey. Since 1992, he has been living and working in Stockholm, Sweden.
For the 2025/26 season, Daniel Nelson’s music has been programmed to be performed by, amongst others, the New York Philharmonic, the Swedish Royal Opera, and The St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra.
Daniel Nelson’s music has often been lauded for its rich rhythmic energy and colourful orchestration.He has mainly written orchestral music, but has also had much success with his works for the dance stage and the opera stage.
Nelson has enjoyed close and extended collaborations with several Swedish orchestras, such as the Nordic Chamber Orchestra who premiered his tuba concerto Metallëphônic (now a standard of the tuba literature), Västerås Sinfonietta who premiered his Clarinet Concerto, and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra who premiered his Chaplin Songs, an oratorium with texts from the final monologue of The Great Dictator by Charlie Chaplin. Other notable orchestral works by Nelson is his I Am Monster, for soprano and orchestra, and his orchestral fanfare Steampunk Blizzard.
Nelson has composed operas for both the Royal Swedish Opera, Sova Vaken (2022), and for the Vadstena-Academy, Pride & Prejudice (2011) and Andefabriken (2023), as well as several ballets and dance works such as The Little Prince (2015), and #Jag (2016).
He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory of Music (BM, 1989) and the University of Chicago (MA, 1992) where his principle composition teachers were Jean Eichelberger-Ivey and Ralph Shapey. Since 1992, he has been living and working in Stockholm, Sweden.
For the 2025/26 season, Daniel Nelson’s music has been programmed to be performed by, amongst others, the New York Philharmonic, the Swedish Royal Opera, and The St. Gallen Symphony Orchestra.