“The velvety, rich-toned allure of Nancy Zeltsman”* has delighted audiences and made a mark on a generation of marimbists, as have her commissioning efforts, recordings and decades of teaching. Zeltsman was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2022.
She has premiered over 130 solo and chamber music compositions including pieces by Gunther Schuller, Michael Tilson Thomas, Robert Aldridge, Steven Mackey, Lyle Mays, Paul Simon, Carla Bley, and Louis Andriessen. Alejandro Viñao and Paul Lansky both wrote their first marimba compositions for Nancy (followed by many others).
The ever-astonishing Nancy Zeltsman played with
sparkling rhythmic inflection, stamina, speed, accuracy
and a full spectrum of colors.
– Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe
Zeltsman is a professor at joint institutions Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Berklee College of Music. She has taught marimba at both schools since 1993 in positions that were created for her. Since 2021, she has been a Guest Artist teaching two weeks per year at University of Michigan. From 2013-2024, she was a regular guest professor of marimba at Conservatorium van Amsterdam.
Nancy first came to prominence as the marimbist of the duo Marimolin. She has performed and presented master classes across the United States and Europe, and in Japan, China, Mexico and Brazil. Institutions include The Juilliard School, Curtis Institute of Music, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Lawrence Conservatory of Music (Appleton, WI), Cleveland Institute of Music, Royal College of Music (London), Académie supérieure de musique (Strasbourg, France), and Escola Superior de Música (Lisbon, Portugal). She has performed or presented at 12 Percussive Arts Society International Conventions and at PAS chapter events in 17 states and Stockholm, Sweden. Performance venues have included the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Ravinia Festival, subscription concerts with the San Francisco Symphony, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall and Merkin Concert Hall (New York), Shenzhen Concert Hall (China), and Harmony Hall (Fukui, Japan).
You play with your soul, and inside my soul.
– a note from an audience member, Mexico City
Besides three albums recorded with Marimolin and their appearances on a few others, recordings include four solo albums including purple music (2023; self-issued). Her second CD with Jack Van Geem, American Gifts for Marimba Duo, was released in 2020 (Bridge Records). She also recorded William Thomas McKinley’s marimba concerto with Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
Nancy’s method book, Four-Mallet Marimba Playing: A Musical Approach for All Levels (Hal Leonard Corporation), is now in its 8th edition. She served four times as a member of the jury for the biennial Tromp Percussion Competition in Eindhoven, The Netherlands (2010-2016). In 2019, she was a jury member for the International Artist Competition hosted by Southern California Marimba, and the Percussive Arts Society’s marimba composition contest. She serves as Marimba editor for Percussive Notes magazine, and on the Advisory Board of The Gunther Schuller Society.
Zeltsman is a Pearl/Adams Artist who worked with Adams Musical Instruments to design the Alpha wood Z-frame endpieces of the Nancy Zeltsman Signature marimba (released in 2021). Her popular line of signature mallets is available from Encore Mallets (through Salyers Percussion).
Over 600 marimba-playing participants attended Zeltsman Marimba Festival events between 2001 and 2018. As Artistic Director, Nancy organized 14 two-week festivals at different venues
across the U.S. and in Amsterdam, and performed and taught at ZMF On Tour events (short
festivals) in China, Japan, Luxembourg and Boston. An offshoot project, ZMF New Music (coordinated with Shawn Michalek), funded by over 200 contributors, fostered 24 marimba solos published as Intermediate
Masterworks for Marimba (C.F. Peters Corporation), and recorded by eight marimbists (Bridge Records double-CD).
Zeltsman graduated from New England Conservatory of Music with a BM in percussion performance (1982) where she studied with Vic Firth. Other teachers included Ian Finkel, Robert Ayers, Donald Marrs, Dave Samuels (jazz improvisation), and William Thomas McKinley (composition). Nancy lives in Boston, Massachusetts.
Last updated August 2024 | Short bio
* Colin Currie, “Taking center stage: percussionist as soloist,” The Cambridge Companion to Percussion (Cambridge University)
Photo: Claudia Hansen