Composer | Librettist | Artist
It’s my pleasure to be embarking on a wonderful collaboration with the Arkansas State University Concert Choir (Ryan W. Sullivan, Director). The ensemble has commissioned me to write a choral setting of a stirring text by contemporary poet Kathryn I. W. Sparks for their 2024-25 season.
The World Premiere will take place in Spring 2025 (date TBA). Watch this space for updates!
I’ve had the great honor of receiving a commission from Boston’s Emmanuel Music (Ryan Turner, Artistic Director), a “living laboratory for the music of J. S. Bach,” which for over fifty years has presented outstanding performances of Bach’s cantatas at Emmanuel Church.
For their signature Cantata Series, Emmanuel Music is commissioning five composers to write choral motets conceived to be heard alongside cantatas from Bach’s oeuvre. My piece will be paired with Bach’s Cantata BWV 46 (“Schauet doch und sehet”).
The premiere of this work will be given during Sunday morning worship service on March 16, 2025 at Emmanuel Church (15 Newbury St, Boston, MA.) The service is free and open to all to attend. I will be sharing more information as the date approaches—in the meantime, learn more about Emmanuel Music’s 2024-25 season here.
Burchfield & Whitman in Opera and Song:
Buffalo Opera Unlimited Performs the Music of Nell Shaw Cohen
Burchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY
Next month the Burchfield Penney Art Center in Buffalo, NY presents a full concert of my opera and art songs comparing the works of two iconic American artists: painter Charles E. Burchfield and poet Walt Whitman.
Tenors Joe Dan Harper and Alexander Kosmowski join Matthew Marco, pianist and Artistic Director of Buffalo Opera Unlimited, in this special event presented in conjunction with the Burchfield Penney Art Center’s exhibition Embracing Earth: Burchfield & Whitman.
My musical interpretations of Whitman’s Poem of The Road and Laws for Creations will be performed alongside the exclusive World Premiere of Proofs of Coming Fullness, which is based on text from Whitman’s memoir Specimen Days.
This will be followed by a staged production of my 2014 work The Coming of Spring: a one-man opera illuminating Burchfield’s artistic evolution. In this work, a series of poignant chronological episodes reveal how perceptions of nature framed Burchfield’s life experience: from days collecting insects during his rural Midwestern childhood to the years in which he supported his large family by producing popular images of industrial and suburban scenery in Buffalo.
Burchfield’s mission to develop the expressive power of his art—and to convey the transition from winter to spring in a single image—leads to a revelation in 1943 with the completion of the monumental titular painting.
Originally scored for tenor with a six-piece chamber ensemble, The Coming of Spring will be performed here in piano-vocal reduction.
Free and open to the public, with limited seating. More information here.
Spring’s greetings, friends!
On today’s equinox, here in the Hudson Valley, buds and sprouts are emerging from winter dormancy and migratory birds are making their appearances. Meanwhile, the spring concert season is warming up around the country.
I’m honored that my music is being featured at three different professional conferences for music educators in the coming months, in performances ranging from a chorus of 245 young voices to solo cello. Additionally, my orchestral tone poem The Sphinx and the Milky Way will be given its fifth performance! Read on for details of these performances.
Wishing you all the best,
-Nell
(Image above: the skunk cabbage, icon of spring!)
Thursday, March 21 at 2:30pm
Kentucky International Convention Center, Louisville, KY
My work for solo cello, Horizon, was selected through a national Call for Scores to be featured in the New Music Reading Sessions at the American String Teachers Association (ASTA) National Conference.
Horizon will be presented by Mira Frisch in the Applied Studio: Solo and Chamber Music reading session featuring music by Women Composers for Cello, Double Bass, Harp, & Guitar.
Saturday, April 20 at 4:00pm
Warner Theatre, Erie, PA
The 245 young voices of the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association (PMEA) All-State Chorus, conducted by Christopher Jackson, will perform my choral work It’s a Long Way at the annual PMEA Conference in Erie, PA.
Sunday, April 28 at 3:00pm
Monmouth College, Monmouth, IL
The Monmouth Civic Orchestra, conducted by Richard Cangro, performs my orchestral tone poem inspired by the paintings of Charles E. Burchfield.
Monday, July 1 at 2:00pm
NATS National Conference, Knoxville, TN
As winner of the 2024 National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS) Artist Award, soprano Emily Siar will perform my song Woman Walking on her featured solo recital at the NATS National Conference.
Saturday, 11/11 at 8:00pm ET
East Cambridge, MA
& Streaming Live on YouTube
Juventas New Music Ensemble presents encore performances of audience favorites from their recent seasons—including my piece Retrace!
Get tickets, read the program, and watch the livestream here.
Friday, 11/17 at 7:30pm
Sunday, 11/19 at 3:00pm
San Antonio, TX
The University of Texas at San Antonio presents a fully-staged workshop production of my new short opera, The Fire Tower, on their program “Epigrams”! Directed by Jourdan Laine Howell. Tickets are available here and at the UTSA Recital Hall.
Set against a backdrop of climate crisis in the American West, this 24-minute opera for soprano, mezzo-soprano, and piano is an intimate portrait of two intrepid women who develop a bond of friendship during a trek deep into the wilderness. Learn more about The Fire Tower.
My album Sauntering Songs is now available on physical CD from Skylark Vocal Ensemble! Please consider supporting my wonderful collaborators by purchasing a copy.
The album is also available on all streaming music platforms.
Extended liner notes for Sauntering Songs are available here.
This Fall I released giclée prints of two new watercolor paintings depicting autumn foliage and rock cliffs here in the Shawangunk Mountains. Check them out, along with my Spring/Summer series, at my Etsy shop!
Earlier this summer, Juventas New Music Ensemble gave brilliant renditions of my works for flute, violin, and cello at The Clark Art Institute‘s Community Day. Live recordings from these performances are now available to stream!
Visit my Soundcloud playlist to hear all of these pieces, and click the titles below to read my program notes and peruse the scores:
SUNBEAMS (2023) – World Premiere
A miniature inspired by Edvard Munch’s 1912 painting “The Sun.”
RETRACE (2018)
This work evokes juxtapositions of past and present in California along the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail.
HORIZON (2013)
A cello solo reflecting landscapes of the East End of Long Island.
LAMENT FOR THE LAND (2023) – World Premiere
A lament expressing grief for humanity’s broken relationship with our environment, and hopeful yearning for a healed Earth.
WHERE THE BUFFALO ROAM (2016/arr. 2023)
This selection from my wildlife conservation suite Refuge dramatizes the story of the American Bison in Yellowstone National Park.
All of these works are available for performance. Please contact me for purchasing information.
Summer has arrived!
Here in the Hudson Valley, fragrant milkweed are blooming. Fireflies are flashing. And turtles are digging their nests (a favorite, the endangered wood turtle, pictured here).
And with the season, a few fun announcements from my composing activities—including free outdoor performances, a new album featuring my music, and the release of 10 (!) new works of my vocal music. Read on for more!
My perennial collaboration with Boston’s wonderful Juventas New Music Ensemble continues with these free, outdoor performances in July:
On Sunday, July 16, as part of their Community Day, the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA presents Juventas in two performances (11:00am and 2:00pm) of a full 45-minute program of my music!
This program will include FOUR World Premiere works and arrangements, exploring themes represented in the Clark’s special exhibitions: landscapes, ecology, and visual art. Highlights will include my miniature inspired by Edvard Munch’s The Sun (on exhibit at The Clark). Featuring Nick Southwick, flute; Ryan Shannon, violin; and Matthew Smith, cello. More information here.
A week later, Juventas will reprise their performance of my work Retrace in a performance at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site on Sunday, July 23 at 2:00pm in Brookline, MA, also featuring music by Christina Rusnak, Oliver Caplan, Gwenyth Walker, and Stacey Garrop. More information here.
I am thrilled for phenomenal GRAMMY-nominated soprano Laura Strickling‘s upcoming album of 20 World Premiere art songs, which she has commissioned and recorded with pianist Daniel Schlosberg—including my song Woman Walking with lyrics by Megan Cohen!
40@40 will be released by the Bright Shiny Things label on August 18. Pre-order here before August 17th with code LAURA20 for 20% off.
Looking for new music for choir or solo voice to perform? I’ve just released the scores of 10 (!) selections from my cantata Sauntering Songs, which may be programmed as standalone pieces.
Each song explores themes of walking and wanderlust, celebrating diverse characters who search for freedom and fulfillment through subversive journeys on foot.
Explore these titles and view free perusal scores on my website:
Interesting in performing any of this music? Please contact me for purchasing information.
Last week I had the unreal experience of watching my vision for concert-length cantata “Sauntering Songs,” a project many years in the making, come to life through the phenomenal voices of Skylark (Matthew Guard, Artistic Director; Sophie Amelkin, Fotina Naumenko, Carrie Cheron, Doug Dodson, Megan Roth, Paul D’Arcy, Erik Gustafson, Nathan Hodgson, Matthew Goinz, Enrico Lagasca, and Dana Whiteside) and an all-star instrumental quartet (guitarist James Moore with Thomas Barth, cello, Julia Scott Carey, piano, and Stacey Chou, flute, of Juventas New Music Ensemble).
I’m grateful for this project, these collaborators, and this week, for so, so many reasons… not least of which that I was able to join the artists for their rehearsals and three World Premiere performances, and to meet the audiences and hear their response to this work.
The final concert was recorded, and I look forward to being able to share it with all of you someday soon!
World Premiere Performances in April 2023
I am thrilled to share a once-in-a-lifetime, dream-come-true project, and my third collaboration with the world class Skylark Vocal Ensemble: Sauntering Songs.
A love letter to wanderlust, this World Premiere commission weaves together art songs, choral music, and literature into an expansive cantata on the theme of walking. Influences from rock, folk, and musical theater feature prominently in this score marrying Skylark’s voices with an instrumental quartet. From Walt Whitman to the present day, Sauntering Songs celebrates diverse characters who search for freedom and fulfillment through subversive journeys on foot.
This work is an expression of so much that I’m passionate about, in music and in life. I look forward to sharing this work with audiences in Massachusetts next spring!
Subscription tickets are available now for the three World Premiere concerts as part of Skylark’s 2022-23 season, “a tour de force of innovative programs that re-define the choral experience for singers and audiences alike.” Single tickets go on sale August 25. Learn more here.
THURSDAY, APRIL 20, 2023 | 7 pm
(6:15 pm pre-concert talk)
Simon Center for the Arts
at Falmouth Academy
Falmouth, MA
FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 2023 | 7 pm
(6:15 pm pre-concert talk)
Church of the Redeemer
Chestnut Hill, MA
SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 2023 | 7 pm
(6:15 pm pre-concert talk)
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church
Newburyport, MA
Librettist Edward Einhorn and I first started dreaming up The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, a family opera adaptation of the 1902 holiday classic by L. Frank Baum, back in 2015 while we were both fellows in AOP’s Composers & the Voice program.
This nontraditional Christmas fairy tale set in the magical world of “The Wizard of Oz” has always captured my imagination. Now I’m delighted to share that there will be a workshop preview of our opera-in-progress, in person in NYC and streaming online!
Hear 25 minutes of excerpts from The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus, performed in a piano-vocal concert reading of two holiday operas next Thursday, June 2 at 7:30pm EDT at OPERA America’s National Opera Center, 330 7th Ave, New York, NY, in a presentation by Edward Einhorn’s Untitled Theater Company No. 61. “Claus” will be paired with excerpts from Exagoge, Edward’s opera on Passover themes with composer Avner Finberg.
Reserve your ticket here (recommended donation $10; masks and proof of vaccination required). A free livestream will also be available on YouTube and posted for 48 hours following the performance.