Nancy Zeltsman, solo marimba

Guest artist Nancy Zeltsman will perform the Michigan debut of “drinking water” – a marimba recital celebrating rejuvenation and renewal. The recital features music not previously heard for marimba (aside from one work by Nancy’s mentor Gunther Schuller) that highlights music from vast international origins and styles.

GUEST ARTIST BIO

NANCY ZELTSMAN has delighted audiences and made a mark on a generation of marimbists, as have her commissioning efforts, recordings, and decades of teaching. She was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame in 2022.

Nancy has performed and presented master classes across the U.S. and Europe, and in Japan, China, Mexico, and Brazil. 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). She 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, Louis Andriessen, Alejandro Viñao, and Paul Lansky.

Zeltsman is professor of marimba and chamber music at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, and at Berklee College of Music, having taught at both since 1993 in positions that were created for her. She has been a Guest Artist teacher at University of Michigan two weeks per year since 2021; and was guest professor of marimba at Conservatorium van Amsterdam from 2013-2024. Over 600 marimba-playing participants attended Zeltsman Marimba Festival events between 2001 and 2018. Four-Mallet Marimba Playing: A Musical Approach for All Levels (Hal Leonard Corporation), Nancy’s method book, is now in its 8th edition.

She grew up in northern New Jersey, then went to study in Boston where she has spent most of her life.