MATTHEW S. NELSON
Composer | Cellist
ABOUT
Matthew S. Nelson is a composer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his score (co-composed with Dan Haseltine) for the hit original series The Chosen and for his work as a touring and session musician. His creative voice is warm, contemplative, and sincere, valuing classical tradition while celebrating imperfection and timbral experimentation.
"The Zen gardener . . . is not interfering with nature because he is nature, and he cultivates as if not cultivating. Thus the garden is at once highly artificial and extremely natural!"
Alan Watts
CONTACT
Correspondence about song submissions may not be returned.
BIO
The Short Story
Matthew S. Nelson is a composer and multi-instrumentalist best known for his score (co-composed with Dan Haseltine) for the hit original series The Chosen and for his work as a touring and session musician. His creative voice is warm, contemplative, and sincere, valuing classical tradition while celebrating imperfection and timbral experimentation.
Nelson holds a Bachelor of Music from Middle Tennessee State University, where he studied cello with Xiao-Fan Zhang and jazz guitar with Paul Abrams, and an Associate of Arts from Pensacola Junior College, where he studied cello with Dr. Brad Knobel.
In addition to album credits as diverse as JD Souther, Anderson East, Michael W. Smith, and Hooray for the Riff Raff, Nelson has performed live with Amy Grant, Sleeping at Last, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Cheap Trick, among a long list of others. He has appeared on NBC’s Today, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Grand Ole Opry, and NPR’s Mountain Stage.
Alongside his ongoing creative projects, he is studying to become a certified spiritual director. Matthew S. Nelson lives in Nashville, Tennessee.