Alva Nelson

Alva Nelson is the son of a Texas preacher man. From the very beginning, music had a strong spiritual pull on him. As a teenager, he was a member of the 'Kashmere Stage Band', the elite Houston high school ensemble noted for their stellar recordings in the 1970's and memorialized in the HBO/Showtime documentary 'Thundersoul', narrated by Jamie Foxx.

Alva was educated at Sam Houston State University and Texas Southern University, and received two Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, two scholarships from the National Association of Jazz Educators, several Meet The Composer grants, and is a former semi-finalist in the highly acclaimed Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition.

Alva spent nearly seven years arranging and orchestrating music for the Boys' Choir of Harlem, with notable performances at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall (with Wynton Marsalis and Kathleen Battle), and the New York Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta.