until his death, collaborating with various people and groups including singing as a bass in the Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra (who have performed several of his works). He also taught privately in the area. Death Nelson died from congestive heart failure on April 11, 2008, at Rhode Island Hospital. He was survived by his wife, Elsa (née Elsa Maria Wohlmuth), whom he married in 1960 in London, England. Selected works Nelson composed a half-hour-long work, Vox Aeterna Amoris, for mezzo-soprano solo and orchestra, which was premiered at Carnegie Hall, February 19, 1991, by Katherine Ciesinski and the National Orchestral Association. For the work, Nelson received an award of $5,000 as part of the seventh annual American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Rudolf Nissim Award. It was lauded by the Daily News as "easily the best work" on the program. Music critic Channing Gray described his 1990 "Cantata Psalmorum" in the Providence Journal-Bulletin the previous year as a "moving, eloquent score." The Midtown Messenger in May 2004 again noted Nelson's life and work and his connection to his hometown, following his visit there to attend a performance of his composition "An Arizona Overture" in April 2004. The composition is a retitled movement from Nelson's "Two Contrasts for Orchestra," which was written as the 50th anniversary of Arizona's statehood approached, and was performed at Phoenix Union High School February 13, 1962, by the Phoenix Symphony. The program also featured violinist Zino Francescatti performing Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. See also Paul Eugene Nelson Diary 1942–1944; References References 1929 births 2008 deaths American male composers Brown University faculty Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Harvard University alumni Musicians from Phoenix, Arizona 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians Earle Spencer Orchestra members