Director

Dr. Lee Nelson serves as the music director and conductor of the Metropolitan Chorale, a 100-voice community choir based in the Cedar Valley.  Nelson has led the ensemble in performances of Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, Felix Mendelssohn’s Vom Himmel hoch, J.S. Bach’s Magnificat, Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria, and Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana.

Dr. Lee Nelson is the Patricia R. Zahn Chair in choral conducting and the Director of Choral Activities at Wartburg College in Waverly, IA.  Dr. Nelson conducts the Wartburg Choir, Ritterchor (men’s choir), teaches advanced conducting, and serves as the artistic director of Christmas with Wartburg.  
 
Dr. Nelson's skills as a conductor were recognized with an invitation from the American Choral Director's Association to compete in the 2005 National Conducting Competition in Los Angeles, CA where he won the competition.  In 2001, Nelson was awarded the Outstanding Young Choral Conductor of the Year award given by ACDA of Minnesota. Dr. Nelson will make his conducting debut at Carnegie Hall in February.  In May of 2011, Nelson will conduct the Wartburg Choir on a month long tour of Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. He is scheduled to conduct all state and honor choirs in Colorado, New York, Mississippi, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Manitoba, Canada during the 20110-2011 academic year.
 
Prior to his appointment at Wartburg College, Dr. Nelson served on the faculty at St. Cloud State University where he received the SCSU Professional Achievement Award in 2008.  Under his direction the St. Cloud State Choir was invited to perform at the 2007 MN ACDA fall convention and toured throughout the Midwest and Canada.  In May of 2008, the choir toured Germany, France and Switzerland and presented the European premiere of Stephen Paulus’ Holocaust oratorio To Be Certain of the Dawn at the site of a former Nazi concentration camp in Natzweil-Struthof.

Dr. Nelson earned a Bachelor of Music Degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.  He has received graduate instruction from Westminster Choir College and is a Summa Cum Laude graduate from the University of Arizona where he received a Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts.