Jeff Nelsen (born December 1969) is a Canadian French horn player.
Hornist Jeff Nelsen was born to opera-singing pig-farming parents in Western Canada. He believes this duality contributes strongly to his unique career paths thus far. He is equally successful in both classical and contemporary genres and in the roles of both musician and mentor. As a performer Jeff is best known as the hornist of the world famous Canadian Brass. As a pedagogue Jeff teaches horn, chamber music, and trains people in what he calls “Fearlessness” at the prestigious Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Jeff has held positions in the Montreal, Vancouver, and Winnipeg symphony orchestras. Among his other appearances as orchestral performer are those with the New York Philharmonic, Boston, National (Kennedy Center, D.C.), Cincinnati, Indianapolis Symphonies, National Arts Center Orchestra, and the Canadian Opera Company. As a member of Canadian Brass, in addition to the hundreds of quintet recitals performed all over the world, Jeff has been featured with countless symphony orchestras including Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, Minnesota, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, and St. Louis.
Nelsen has performed the complete run of two shows on Broadway, and toured with popular entertainers including Michael Bolton and Barry Manilow. Jeff has an extensive discography ranging from film, TV, Broadway show and video game soundtracks, pop and jazz music, solos, chamber, symphonic, and operatic repertoire. These recordings are on labels such as Sony Classical, Warner, Blue Note, London/Decca, Disney, Summit Records, C.B.C. and Opening Day Records. Jeff continues to attract rave reviews as a featured soloist on the Canadian Brass release “Magic Horn.” This CD was nominated for a Juno Award (Canadian equivalent to the Grammy Award) for “Best Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble.” Intensely active as a soloist, chamber musician, and clinician, Mr. Nelsen has appeared at numerous international music festivals including Ravinia, Tanglewood, Blossom, Music Academy of the West, Banff, Las Vegas, and St. Barthlélemy.
Jeff is married to mezzo-soprano Nina Yoshida Nelsen. Jeff can’t seem to escape singers! These strong vocal influences on his music-making give Jeff his signature sound and singing approach to his teaching and horn playing. His eldest sister Lisa resides in England where she is a freelance flutist while his sister Suzanne, a bassoonist, is a member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Suzanne is also married to former CB hornist David Ohanian.
Aside from creating musical magic, Jeff is an enthusiastic magician, and often adds touches of illusionary arts to performances. Prior to joining the faculty at Indiana University, Jeff had been on faculty at the Universities of Toronto, British Columbia, Victoria, and McGill University in Montreal. He has recurring articles focusing on “Fearlessness” in the magazines for the International Horn Society and the British Horn Society and his debut publication, “Fearless Performance” is due for release soon. He hosts his seminar, “Fearless Performance for Musicians” at Indiana University every summer. Mr. Nelsen is a Yamaha performing artist and clinician.