At 32 years old, Timothy Nelson has directed over 40 productions of opera and theater. In 2009 he was one of four awardees in the Opera Europa International Directing Prize, and has also received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Geoffrey C. Hughes Foundation, and the Virginia Commission on the Arts. In 2003 he founded American Opera Theater, an ensemble incorporating his interests in movement, music, and design, challenging audiences' ideas about opera as theater. Nelson has become known for innovative productions of traditional repertoire, rarely heard works of both opera and theater, and for the creation of new concept works. He continues to develop approaches to expanding understanding of opera as theater, concert, and ritual, to connect the art form with contemporary social questions and dialogues. Finding a link between theater and the lives of audience members is central to his work.
Nelson now enjoys a diverse career as director and designer, splitting his time equally between North American and Europe. Recently he opened the 2011 Festival Della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca with Rossini's "Aureliano in Palmira", directed a new production of "Rigoletto" for the Festival Villa di Chieasa Classica in Sardinia, opened the 2010 Grachtenfestival Amsterdam with the Netherlands premier of Peter Maxwell Davie's “The Lighthouse” for the Nationale Reisopera, of which the NRC Handelsblad said “Nelson directed with lighting effects an overwhelming, and always stunning, performance”, and the 2011 Operadagen Rotterdan with "Dido and Aeneas". This year also saw a new production of “Giulio Cesare” for Opera London, starring renowned counter-tenor Drew Minter, an original Kurt Weill work “Songspiel” for two-time Grammy winning soprano Sylvia McNair, “La Voix Huamine” with the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, as well as productions of "Don Giovanni" and "Les Dialogues des Carmelites". In 2008 he directed and conducted the North American premier of Charpentier's “David et Jonathas” at the Brooklyn Academy of music, and the following year Phillip Glass' “Hydrogen Jukebox” in Washington, DC as part of the Presidential Inauguration festivities. Projects this season include Knussen’s “Where the Wild Things Are” and Ravel's "L'Enfant et les Sortileges" for the NJO and DNOA in a tour to Amsterdam’s het Concertgebouw, Rotterdam's de Doelen, and Antwerp’s de Singel, Vivaldi's "Griselda" for Peabody Conservatory, and many productions with the Opera Studio Nederland. The Baltimore Sun said of his 2008 version of the Peter Brook “Carmen” that he “out-Brooked Brook”, and the New York Times has called him “The Future of Opera”.elson now enjoys a diverse career as director and designer, splitting his time equally between North American and Europe. Recently he opened the 2010 Grachtenfestival Amsterdam with the Netherlands premier of Peter Maxwell Davie's “The Lighthouse” for the Nationale Reisopera, of which the NRC Handelsblad said “Nelson directed with lighting effects an overwhelming, and always stunning, performance”, he also served as designer for this production. This year also saw a new production of “Giulio Cesare” for Opera London confronting America's prolonged engagement in Afghanistan, starring renowned counter-tenor Drew Minter, an original Kurt Weill work “Songspiel” for two-time Grammy winning soprano Sylvia McNair confronting the issue of homelessness in post-Katrina New Orleans, “La Voix Huamine” with the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, and "The Gonzales Cantata" for American Opera Theater, a setting of the transcripts from the Alberto Gonzales congressional hearings in the style of a Handel oratorio. In 2008 he directed and conducted the North American premier of Charpentier's “David et Jonathas” at the Brooklyn Academy of music, and the following year Phillip Glass' “Hydrogen Jukebox” in Washington, DC as part of the Presidential Inauguration festivities. Projects this season include “Aureliano in Palmira” for the prestigious Festival della Valle d'Itria, “Rigoletto” for the Enti Concerti Sardinia, “Dido+Aeneas” for Opera Rotterdam, and Knussen’s “Where the Wild Things Are” and Ravel's "L'Enfant et les Sortileges" for the NJO in a tour to Amsterdam’s het Concertgebouw, Rotterdam's de Doelen, and Antwerp’s de Singel, as a double exploring a simultaneous Christ-allegory, and Everyman play. 2011 will mark his third year as resident director of festival Villa di Chiesa Classica in Sardinia, where he has directed productions of his “Le Cabaret de Carmen”, “Dido+Aeneas”, and most recently Puccini's “Butterfly”. The Baltimore Sun said of his 2008 version of the Peter Brook “Carmen” that he “out-Brooked Brook”, and the New York Times has called him “The Future of Opera”.
Nelson is also active as an opera educator. Outside of his role as Artistic Director of the Opera Studio Nederland, he serves as Artistic Director of the Candian Operatic Arts Academy in London Ontario, and its sister program Accademia Europea Dell'Opera in Milan and Amsterdam. On the University level he has directed for Oberlin Conservatory (2007), Indiana University (2007-2009), Bard College (2010), The Hague and Amsterdam Conservatories (2011), and Georgetown University (2007-2010), and has been asked as an instructor of opera at Indiana University, the Dutch National Opera Academy, the National Opera Studio London, the Scuola dell’Opera Italiana Bologna.