Dr. Nell Flanders
Director of Orchestral Activities | Assistant Professor of Music
Office: FA 311
- B.Mus. Oberlin Conservatory of Music 1994, Violin Performance Major, Piano Minor
- M.M. University of Akron 1996, Violin Performance
- M.M. Mannes College- The New School 2015, Orchestral Conducting
- D.M.A. Peabody Conservatory-Johns Hopkins University 2020, Orchestral Conducting
Joined ISU Faculty in 2022.
Nell Flanders is Director of Orchestral Activities/Assistant Professor at ISU, where she leads the Idaho State-Civic Symphony (ISCS) and the ISU Chamber Orchestra. Dr. Flanders has spearheaded innovative projects at ISU, including the 2024 release of the ISCS’s debut album Strata, which featured the Grammy Award winning Pedro Giraudo Tango Quartet, and the creation of a national consortium of orchestras to co-commission Up North, a piano concerto by Eastman composer Daniel Pesca, which the ISCS premiered in 2025. Current commissioning projects include a concerto for Native Flute and orchestra by Hovia Edwards and Justin Ralls and participating in a consortium led by the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble for a chamber orchestra work by Daniel Pesca.
Dr. Flanders travels frequently to Panama to work with both professional and student ensembles, including the National Symphony Orchestra of Panama in 2024 and 2025. From 2018-2021 she held the position of Georg and Joyce Albers-Schonberg Assistant Conductor with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra, conducting the PSO in ballet, popular classics, and holiday concerts and creating highly successful online educational programs. Her passion for the music of our time has led to many premiere performances and the promotion of contemporary composers’ works. Dr. Flanders’ opera credits include the premiere of a set of one-act operas by composer Daniel Felsenfeld with The Secret Opera company and Kamala Sankaram’s The Infinite Energy of Ada Lovelace with New Camerata Opera. She served as Assistant Conductor with Peabody Opera Theater for the 2014-2015 season. As a staff conductor with The Chelsea Symphony in New York City from 2018-2023, Dr. Flanders conducted performances at Merkin Concert Hall and the DiMenna Center, among others.
A passionate educator, Dr. Flanders has led Honors orchestras in Idaho and Montana and taught conducting workshops in both the US and Panama. Each summer she directs the senior orchestra at the ISU Summer Institute for Piano and Strings (SIPS) and teaches chamber music and large ensemble skills to local musicians at the ISCS Summer String Intensive (SSI). From 2014-2021 she was the conductor of the Symphony and Repertory Orchestras at the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division. Previous academic positions include the University of Maryland- Baltimore County, the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College- City University of New York, the University of Chicago, and Utah State University.
In addition to her activities as a conductor, Dr. Flanders enjoys performing on the violin and viola, bringing her dynamic musicality to performances in a wide variety of genres, from orchestral classics to contemporary music, tango, blues, and period instrument baroque. Off stage and out of the classroom, she enjoys dancing Argentine Tango, rock climbing, and spoiling her big orange cat, Simba.