Susan T. Nelson
Susan T. Nelson holds degrees in Music Technology & Composition (M.M., Summa Cum Laude, University of Valley Forge, 2014) and Music Theory & Composition (B.A., Rutgers University, 1979). Published since 1991, she has released numerous works with 22 major publishers, and her music has been featured at leading festivals including Ring in Praise Seminars (Scotland), Bay View Week of Handbells, the Hong Kong Handbell Festival, and Distinctly Bronze. Her commissions include the Back Bay Ringers, Oklahoma City Handbell Ensemble, and Velocity Handbell Ensemble. Her arrangement of Brian Boru March appeared in an Estonian TV commercial, and her Trumpet Voluntary opened the 99th Estonian Independence Day ceremonies. Her works have been performed and broadcast across six continents.
Invited to Estonia in 2013 by conductor Inna Lai, Nelson attended an “author’s concert” of her music, which also served as her graduate recital. Their ongoing collaboration produced Campanelli’s 2017 U.S. Sue’s Blues Too tour and the 2019 Sue’s Blues 3 concert in Tallinn. Nelson and Lai are the subjects of two documentary films by Kopli Kinokompanii, premiered in Tallinn and later broadcast on television.
Her honors include eight ASCAP Plus Awards, the W.D. McKeehan Award from Handbell Musicians of America, and selection for the Reverbeebi Project, placing two of her works in the Estonian Museum of Theatre and Music. She has studied with leading composers and clinicians, is internationally recognized for her innovative handbell writing, and is constantly expanding the repertoire.
Nelson has taught composition, orchestration, theory, and handbell techniques at numerous workshops and festivals. She is the creator of the KidzRing™ series for young ringers, an HRGB-published author, and curator of the Virtual Handbell Museum. A longtime music director and multi-instrumentalist, she recently retired from church work and Westminster Choir College’s Talbott Library to compose full-time.
www.susantnelson.com
