Nancy Zeltsman

Zeltsman Marimba Festival, founded and directed by Nancy, produced intensive seminars, brought together world-class marimba and percussion performers to work closely with participants, and presented concerts open to the public — all with the objective of stimulating greater appreciation for the marimba as a concert instrument. Following the success of Princeton Marimba Festival in 2001, it was organized as a 501(c)3 non-profit, and the name was changed to facilitate moving the event to other locations. Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Inc. was dissolved at the end of 2020 (and donated its assets to Southern California Marimba). Copies of all the festival's concert programs and schedules are archived at the Rhythm! Discovery Center Museum in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Over 600 participants attended ZMF events between 2001 and 2018. As Artistic Director, Nancy organized the two-week events with two primary assistants over all those years: Shawn Michalek and Mike Truesdell. Beside Nancy, the other mainstay faculty member was Jack Van Geem (pictured with Nancy). Jack's cumulative weeks spent at ZMFs total more than half of a year! Numerous lifelong friendships were formed at the events, and three couples who met at ZMF married. 

The festival changed location each year in order to better serve participants and bring concerts to more audiences. Two-week festivals were co-sponsored in/by:

Appleton, Wisconsin | Lawrence University | 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
Boston, Massachusetts | The Boston Conservatory | 2004, 2006
New Brunswick, New Jersey | Rutgers University | 2015, 2017
Princeton, New Jersey | Princeton University | 2001*
Los Angeles, California | The Colburn School | 2008
Arcata, California | Humboldt State University | 2013
Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Conservatorium van Amsterdam | 2010
*Called "Princeton Marimba Festival," but same format. No festival was held in 2002, 2012, 2016 or 2019.

More key contributors to ZMFs included Dane Richeson, Nanae Mimura, Ivana Bilic, Jean Geoffroy, Peter Prommel, Fumito Nunoya, Rachel Xi Zhang, Laurent Warnier, Pedro Carneiro, Beverley Johnston, Julie Spencer, Gordon Stout, Emmanuel Séjourné, David Friedman, Christos Rafalides, Anders Åstrand, Theodor Milkov, Ria Ideta, William Moersch and Thomas Burritt; visiting composers included Gunther Schuller, Louis Andriessen, Lyle Mays, Andrew Thomas, Robert Aldridge, Steven Mackey, Paul Lansky, Alejandro Viñao, Daniel Levitan, Errollyn Wallen and James Rolfe; administrative assistants included Michael Ptacin, Dane Palmer, Una Cheng, Ayami Okamura, and Brian Calhoon; and Board members included Cayenna Ponchione, Van Geem, Richeson, Truesdell, and Michalek. At least 80 more faculty, associate faculty, guest presenters and performers or groups shared their expertise over all the years, and dozens of participants on logistics teams poured themselves into complicated maneuvers behind the scenes (often involving 25 marimbas per festival) so that everything ran smoothly. Complete history of all ZMF & ZMF On Tour contributors

ZMF On Tour (short festivals) occurred in Japan, China, Luxembourg, and Boston between 2014 and 2018. 

ZMF New Music was a three-year long project that fostered the creation of 24 marimba solos published in two volumes as Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba (C.F. Peters Corporation). The collection was recorded by eight marimbists on a double-CD (Bridge Records). See buttons below for links to these.

Deepest thanks to all who contributed so enthusiastically and meaningfully to the ZMF experience: participants, faculty and audience members alike!