Erik Nielsen has been composing for 30 years and his catalog includes works for chorus, orchestra, wind ensemble, solo instruments, chamber music of many configurations and electronic music. His works have been performed in Canada, Europe, South America, Asia and Australia as well as many locations in the United States and have been performed by ensembles  including the Amabile, Chiara, Emerson and Ying String Quartets; the National Symphony Orchestra;  the Killington and Manchester Chamber Players; Bread and Puppet Theater; the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble; Vermont Symphony; Vermont Youth Orchestra and Village and Northern Harmony. He has won awards from ASCAP, the Vermont Arts Council, and in 1991 was chosen Vermont Composer of the Year by the Vermont Music Teachers Association. His most recent commissions include a song cycle, The Falling of Trees, premiered by the Rochester Chamber Music Society in Rochester, Vermont July 8, 2007; Quartet for Strings #2, premiered by the Chiara Quartet at The Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph, Vermont in March 15, 2008 for which he received funding from the Composer Assistance Program of the American Music Center; and Cinque Amici, a new work for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano premiered by the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble in April 2008.  In 2007 he was awarded a Creation Grant by the Vermont Arts Council to compose the latter work and in 2004 also received a Creation Grant to compose a companion piece to Stravinsky's L'Histoire du Soldat.  This grant was supplemented by a Kittredge Fund grant in 2009.  The work, The Crane Maiden, will be toured by the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble during the 2010-11 season.   In 2002 he received the National Symphony Orchestra's composition prize for Vermont.  The resulting commissioned work, Mr. Nielsen's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings,  was premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. on March 20, 2004.   He has also recently received commissions from the Vermont All-State Music Festival, Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph, the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble and the Vermont Youth Orchestra. He was a 1994-95 recipient of a Vermont Council on the Arts Fellowship in music. In 1995 his piano quintet was performed at Carnegie Hall by the Manchester Chamber Players. In October, 2000, his opera, A FLEETING ANIMAL: An Opera from Judevine, a collaboration with poet/playwright David Budbill, was premiered to great acclaim in several locations in Vermont. In addition, Mr. Nielsen is the former Director of the Consortium of Vermont Composers, a position he held for three years. He has been Composer-in Residence at  East Hartford, Glastonbury, Rocky Hill and Simsbury  High Schools in Connecticut since 1999 as well as composition mentor with the Vermont Midi Project since 2004.   He also teaches music theory and composition with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Mr. Nielsen lives in Brookfield, Vermont.

Erik Nielsen has been composing for 30 years and his catalog includes works for chorus, orchestra, wind ensemble, solo instruments, chamber music of many configurations and electronic music. In 2002 he received the National Symphony Orchestra's composition prize for Vermont.  The resulting commissioned work, Mr. Nielsen's Quintet for Clarinet and Strings,  was premiered at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. on March 20, 2004.  He has also recently received commissions from the Vermont All-State Music Festival, Chandler Center for the Arts in Randolph, the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble and the Vermont Youth Orchestra.  He is Composer-in Residence at  East Hartford, Glastonbury, Rocky Hill and Simsbury High Schools in Connecticut, as well as composition mentor with the Vermont Midi Project.   He also teaches music theory and composition with the Vermont Youth Orchestra. Mr. Nielsen lives in Brookfield, Vermont.