Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Nelson, Norman
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1932-2018
History
Norman Nelson was born on August 1, 1931 in Dublin, Ireland. Norman Nelson was a classically trained violinist and a member of several well known orchestras and ensembles, including the Purcell String Quartet. From 1945-1951, he studied with George Strattan and Sascha Lasserson at the Royal Conservatory for Music in Toronto, before moving to London to join the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1965, he moved to Vancouver, where he served as the concertmaster for the Vancouver Symphony Orhestra from 1966-1972; as concertmaster of the Baroque Strings of Vancouver in 1976; and became a founding member of the Purcell String Quartet. In 1979, he joined the Department of Music at the University of Alberta and became first violin with the University of Alberta String Quartet. He retired from the University of Alberta in 1996 and returned to British Columbia, where he founded the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra and ran the annual Sooke Chamber Music Workshops up until his death in 2018.