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Performing Arts Library Special Collections in Performing Arts ABA Research Center 
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Ostwald Award Archives
Winner 1994: Ron Nelson, Chaconne (In Memoriam) (commission)
Winner 1993: Ron Nelson, Passacaglia (Homage on B-A-C-H)
Biography: Ron Nelson was born in in Joliet, Illinois in 1929 and began composing at the age of six. He studied at the Eastman School of Music (1948-1956) with Howard Hanson and Bernard Rogers. There he received B.M., M.M. and D.M.A. degrees. Nelson also did post-graduate work in Paris at L'Ecole Normale de Musique (1954-1955) where he studied with Tony Aubin. He joined the music faculty of Brown University in 1956, served as Chairman of the Music Department from 1963 to 1973 and retired as Professor Emeritus in 1993.
Nelson has received numerous fellowships and awards, including a Fulbright Award (1954-1955), a Ford Foundation Fellowship (1963), a Benjamin Award (1964), a Howard Foundation Grant for World Tour (1965-1966), NEA Grants (1973, 1976, 1979), and ASCAP Awards (1962-present). In 1991 he was awarded the Acuff Chair of Excellence in the Creative Arts, the first musician to hold the chair. In addition to winning the Ostwald Award, his Passacaglia (Homage on B-A-C-H) won the 1993 National Band Association Prize and the Sudler International Wind Band Composition Competition. He has received commissions from many orchestras including the National Symphony Orchestra and the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, universities, choral organizations, The Aspen Music Festival and Brevard Music Center. He has also written a number of film scores for Eastman Kodak, Columbia Pictures, and NBC. Over ninety of his works for Orchestra, Chorus and Wind Symphony have been published by Boosey and Hawkes, Carl Fischer, Elkan-Vogel and Ludwig Music and recordings of his music can be found under several labels.
Nelson resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Sources:
Correspondence with the composer.
William H. Rehrig, The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. Westerville, Ohio: Integrity Press, 1991.
