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Marie Barker Nelson (b. 1926) grew up in Salt Lake City, Utah, where she studied piano with Becky Almond and Gladys Gladstone. She graduated from the University of Utah with a major in music, and later received a degree from the Yale School of Music where she studied with renown composer Paul Hindemith. She earned her Master of Arts under the guidance of LeRoy Robertson and her Ph.D. under Ramiro Cortés and Vladimir Ussachevsky at the University of Utah. Maurice Abravanel was instrumental in bringing about the first performance of Nelson's tone poem The Medead by the Utah Symphony in 1977. Another work, Once in Israel was premiered by the Pro Musica chorus and orchestra. Among her other works are five musical plays for children which have been performed by the Pioneer Children's Theater, and also two adult musicals, Someone who Cares, and Porter. Her string quartet has been performed at UCLA as well as in Salt Lake City , and she was a first place winner in the Utah State Fair composition competition.

Nelson has composed numerous songs including arrangements of I Wonder and I Wander and Mary's Lullaby, and a commissioned work, Gloria for mixed chorus and organ, all introduced at Pro Musica's Christmas concerts in Salt Lake City. In 1992 she had several performances of her Sonata for Trombone and Piano (at the Contemporary Music Consortium) and a song cycle commissioned by the Salt Lake Vocal Ensemble, entitled Song of the Goddesses. She currently works with Bruce Reich.