Musician Spotlight: Kyara Nelsen

Meet Kyara!

Kyara is our Youth Orchestra Director and this week’s spotlight!

She is from Helena, and has been playing violin since she was young. She became serious about the violin after hearing Bach’s Chaconne, which inspired her to take private lessons. She says it always felt obvious that she was going to pursue a career in music. In her senior year of high school she played in the all state orchestra and was blown away by full orchestra experience.

After high school, she earned her bachelors in violin performance. She then pursued two masters degrees, the first in viola performance and the second in conducting. She settled in Missoula, but travels all around the state to play or teach. Not only does she travel to Great Falls to direct our Youth Orchestra, she also holds the Concertmaster position at the Butte Symphony, and is an adjunct professor of music theory and history at Flathead Valley Community College. She also teaches private lessons in Flathead!

When she’s not hustling, she enjoys playing Fortnite with her brothers who are 11 and 12 years old. She has started learning to play the bass guitar, and likes to travel. She has three cats: Murray, Gustav (after Mahler of course), and Alma. Besides Bach’s Chaconne, her favorite piece is Mahler’s 5th Symphony. She did a big project on it in college, and even used to have a custom license plate that read, MAHLER5. She also enjoys reading and prefers auto-biographies and books on philosophy.

As Youth Orchestra Director, Kyara loves seeing progress in students and how every rehearsal they get better and surprise her. She loves creating music in a fun environment, with low stress and pressure on the kids. She says, “I can’t believe I get paid for it!” She enjoyed writing the programming for the Halloween Matinee, where the emcee was a chef who used the orchestra to cook up a perfect concert using musical pieces as ingredients. She says the inspiration for programming pieces comes from the music she played as a youngster. As a violinist, she bases the difficulty off the string section first, then creates themes around each center piece of music. She says it can be a process of trial and error to find pieces that compliment the central theme. If the original piece falls through then she has to scrap and start over. She gets to use her creativity to design each program, and she has fun making each concert!

When we asked what she thinks is special about Youth Orchestra programs, and what she would like people to know about them, she said:

“It is a huge resource to see how it is different from band or orchestra class. Joining Youth Orchestra can help musicians connect into community orchestras as an adult easier. Also, it is never too old to start! There are adult students in the Youth Orchestra that just love it, and we love having them.”

Click for Kyara's Biography!