Bard College Conservatory of Music Presents

Alumni/ae Spotlight Series: Rosemary Nelis, viola

Violist Rosemary Nelis has performed as a chamber musician and soloist throughout the United States and Europe, sharing her imaginative playing in work that spans the great standard repertoire, historical performance, and extensive collaboration with living composers. Major performances include American premieres of works by composers Brett Dean, Hilda Paredes, Jörg Widmann, in addition to the New York City premiere of György Kurtág’s …Concertante… for solo violin, solo viola and orchestra on the Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall.

Nelis’s versatility and musical nuance has made her a sought-after performer in both modern and historical performance settings: performing with leading chamber orchestras such as Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and A Far Cry to historical performance ensembles including Juilliard415, the Sebastians, Baroquelyn, and Twelfth Night.

Nelis has performed at celebrated festivals such as Yellow Barn, Bard Music Festival, and Kneisel Hall. A dedicated educator, Nelis has held teaching positions at institutions including the Kinhaven Music School (2022), and currently serves as faculty at the Yellow Barn Young Artists Program, Special Music School, the Eisman Center at Queens College, and Montclair State University. Nelis is also faculty at Valley of the Moon Music Festival where she focuses on coaching and performing classical and romantic repertoire on period instruments with her ensemble, Quartet Amizia. 

Nelis holds a BM and BA from Bard College Conservatory of Music, where she studied viola with Steven Tenenbom and majored in Chinese Language and Literature. Nelis was the proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship during her Masters studies at The Juilliard School, where she worked with Roger Tapping and Misha Amory. She is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center where she works with Mark Steinberg. Other teachers include Duncan Ferguson (Royal Conservatoire of Scotland), Ettore Causa (Yale School of Music) and her longtime childhood teacher and mentor, Viktor Basis (Special Music School).

Nelis performs on a 1991 viola crafted by Brooklyn-based luthier Samuel Zygmuntowicz.

Free and open to the public.

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For more information, call 845-758-7196, or e-mail [email protected].

Time: 7:30 pm EST/GMT-5

Location: Bitó Conservatory Building, Performance Space

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