Eliesha Nelson was born and raised in the interior of Alaska.
She earned her bachelor's and master's of music at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and an artist's diploma from the Royal Academy of Music in London through a Fulbright award. Her teachers have included Robert Vernon, Linda Cerone, and Gyorgy Pauk. Ms. Nelson served as acting principal viola of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra, and is presently a member of the Cleveland Orchestra.
She has appeared as soloist with orchestras including the Ohio Chamber Orchestra and the San Antonio Symphony. One of her big passions is chamber music, which she taught for several years at ENCORE School for Strings. She also taught viola at the Cleveland School of the Arts Lower Campus, and currently at the High School as part of the Cleveland Orchestra Music Mentors program. Ms. Nelson recorded “Quincy Porter Viola Works,” her first album which was released in 2009 and was nominated in four Grammy categories, winning “Best Engineered Album, Classical”. She has done two more recordings since under the Sono Luminus label.