“When looking to other artists for influence, nature is the most reliable.”
Jon D. Nelson is a contemporary composer, pianist, and platform engineer, based in Madison, Wisconsin. With a career that strives to bridge the worlds of music, technology, and education, Jon is dedicated to innovating at the intersection of human creativity and technology.
As a 2022 graduate of London’s Royal College of Music with distinction, Nelson writes contemporary classical music informed by microtonal harmony and post‑impressionist color. His works have been performed on both sides of the Atlantic by a range of organizations including the English National Ballet School, Explore Ensemble, Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras, Muncie Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonic Chorus of Madison, and more.
Nelson’s performance resumé spans international touring, more than 200 studio recording sessions, and five years as a founding member of rock band, Trackless. He has taught private piano and group musicianship since 2017 and co‑founded Resonance, a mentorship program that has premiered dozens of student compositions across four seasons.
Technology is a second pillar of Nelson’s practice. As founder of KEEx.AI Inc, he leads development of Simphoni, a React platform in-development for Teachers, Artists, and Researchers prioritizing offline AI tooling. The platform aims to coordinate GPU inference across heterogeneous hardware, essentially crowd-sourcing compute for heavy ML processes as an alternative to society’s growing reliance on big-tech data centers. Simphoni‑Spatial, an Unreal‑Engine‑powered VR co‑working environment, aims to facilitate collaboration between like-minded creatives in a fun, yet professional MMO-like environment. Prior to current ongoing development of Simphoni, Nelson has held previous positions as a systems analyst and A/V engineer for the Wisconsin Elections Commission where he trained election officials statewide, produced live‑broadcast content, and designed software tutorials.
Nelson’s creative research currently centers around “Tone Sculptures” and “Sound Chandeliers” — visual & sonic studies of microtonal pitch spaces — and on generative‑AI tooling for musicians. He works fluently with open‑source language and text-to-audio models, always emphasizing artist privacy, ethical deployment, and the irreplaceable value of human imagination.
Whether orchestrating for chamber ensemble, retuning a piano, or developing software, Nelson’s work orbits around a central goal: to let technology expand, rather than replace, the expressive possibilities of art while continually striving to contribute to humanity’s fragile creative spirit.
Looking for a private page on this site? CLICK HERE