NELMS MCKELVAIN received his Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and his Masters of Music degree from the University of Texas at Austin with artist–teacher John Perry.  After graduation he relocated to Greenville, NC, to be associate professor of piano at East Carolina University. Then he spent a year accompanying and coaching singers in New York before moving west to pursue a wide variety of free-lance musical activities in Los Angeles including private teaching, accompanying and musical directing in the theater. He was assistant lecturer in piano at the University of Southern California while doing doctoral study in piano performance at USC and joined the music faculty of the Idyllwild Arts Academy in 1989 where he served as piano teacher for twenty-six years and Dean of Arts for sixteen years. Many of his former students have gone on to continue their studies at prestigious institutions such as The Juilliard School, The Colburn School, Oberlin Conservatory, Boston Conservatory, Eastman School of Music, USC, UCLA and the San Francisco Conservatory to name a few.  

For five years from 2014 until 2019 Nelms was the Education Director for the Hi-Desert Cultural Center in Yucca Valley and taught piano and musical theater voice classes for the ARTS|TECH Academy. He was musical director for four of the Cultural Center’s award-winning summer youth musicals and mainstage shows like Spitfire Grill, Godspell and Little Shop of Horrors. In September 2018, he became assistant director and pianist for the re-imagined Hi-Desert Master Chorus. He has performed organist and pianist duties for many churches since his junior high and high school days and is currently the organist at the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Palm Desert.