A Bottineau native, Olson grew up in the grocery business as her father owned the local Piggly Wiggly store. Olson got a degree in vocal and music education along with a business administration degree, and cut her teeth in music education teaching private piano lessons before her first gig teaching elementary music in Jamestown after graduation. Olson would eventually follow the siren song back home to Bottineau in 1982 to teach instrumental music where she remained until she retired in 2019.

“I do miss the classroom a lot. I don’t miss the politics, but I sure do miss the kids,” Olson said.

As a child, Olson said her mother would often take her and her siblings to the Bottineau County Concert Series events. When she and her husband moved back to Bottineau in 1982, Olson said she was quickly recruited to join the Bottineau Concert Association board – a side hustle which has kept her occupied well into retirement.

The Bottineau Concert Series is entering its 71st season of shows this year, and provides up to 12 concerts for its faithful patrons throughout Bottineau County and the surrounding region. The programming for the series was originally focused solely on classical music and was held at Thatcher Hall in its beginning years. The concerts are now held at James Holwell auditorium, and Olson said the association has branched as far as bookings are concerned to cater to the evolving tastes of the community.

Nancy Olson

“That’s what people wanted so that’s what they were providing. That’s what I sat through on the hard cement bleachers at Thatcher Hall at the college. To sit through two hours of that as a kid was pretty tough,” Olson said. “We’ve listened to our audience and made the changes. By listening to what our people like, we’ve been able to do this into what is now our 71st season. We work really hard to appeal to our audiences to keep this organization going.”

Olson said she has followed the example of founding board member Alice Renick, who was a driving force behind organizing and advertising the concert series for decades. Renick was so committed to realizing the concert series year-in and year-out that Olson said she took some convincing to hand over the reins to the next generation.

“She was doing just about everything up until she couldn’t do it anymore. I had talked to her and said, ‘Alice, I know you don’t really want to give up any of your duties, but you have to let us learn what you do.’ She finally let me put together membership sales packets. Gradually she let me in on a little bit more. Her hold was pretty tight on the organization because she was so passionate about it,” Olson said.

Olson recalled a conversation she had with Renick when she returned to Bottineau for a visit after she had moved to Fargo, where, rather than pleasantries, Renick’s paramount concern was for the concert series.

“She grabbed my arm, and I’ll tell ya she squeezed tight. She said, ‘Nancy, whatever you do, keep the concert series going.’ That was her big concern. She didn’t say hello or anything,” Olson said. “I thought, well good for you Alice, we’re going to do everything we can to do that. And we’ve been successful, but it’s been a challenge.”

The most notable hiccup for the concert series came during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in two of the four concerts to be canceled. Olson said that while the organization offered to refund ticket purchases, not a single individual asked for their money back and instead willingly let the concert series keep the cash as a donation. Olson said she felt this generosity illustrated the investment and appreciation the Bottineau County community has for music and the arts.

“If you can get your foothold in and then keep working at it like we have around here, people then start to look forward to it. They make time for it, they mark it on their calendars because they know it’s coming. Then it becomes a highlight for them,” Olson said. “Music is such an important element in everybody’s life. Because my job and my life and world revolves around so much music, any time I can share that with people so they can enjoy it, through one medium or another, man, that makes my day.”