Jordan Nelson (he/him) is a composer and educator based in Southern California. Jordan’s musical projects are often driven by collaboration, and his output ranges from abstract concert works to ambient electronic music.
Jordan’s notable projects include a work for string quartet commissioned by the Viano Quartet (Join), a large-scale project for soprano, string quartet, and projected images (Tender Buttons) based on poetry by Gertrude Stein, with original artwork by Morgan Thomas Shankweiler, and a collection of pieces for solo piano based upon the Great American Songbook (Songbook for piano) created in collaboration with Thomas Kotcheff. An album of the Songbook project was released in 2024 on the Coviello Contemporary label titled Re/Sounding: An American Songbook for Piano.
Jordan is the Chair of the Theory Department at the Colburn Conservatory of Music, where he teaches courses in Theory, Ear-Training, and Composition. He has previously served as guest faculty of the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the West Chester University Wells School of Music, the USC Thornton School of Music, and Yale University. In addition to teaching private composition lessons, he has served on the faculty for multiple young composer programs and workshops in Southern California. Jordan earned his D.M.A. and M.M. in Composition from the USC Thornton School of Music, and he received his B.A. in Music from Yale University. Jordan grew up in Swarthmore, PA.