Nancy Zeltsman
“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. 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. Besides three albums recorded with Sharan Leventhal / Marimolin, Nancy recorded four solo albums including drinking water (self-issued; 2025), purple music (self-issued; 2023) and two albums with Jack Van Geem including American Gifts for Marimba Duo (Bridge Records; 2020). She recorded William Thomas McKinley’s marimba concerto Childhood Memories with Boston Modern Orchestra Project.
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. 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 (short festivals) in China, Japan, Luxembourg, and Boston. ZMF New Music (co-directed by Nancy and Shawn Michalek) fostered 24 new marimba solos published as Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba in two volumes (by C.F. Peters Corporation) and recorded by eight marimbists on a double-CD (Bridge Records).
Four-Mallet Marimba Playing: A Musical Approach for All Levels (Hal Leonard Corporation), Nancy’s method book, is now in its 8th edition. Zeltsman served four times as a member of the jury for the biennial Tromp Percussion Competition in Eindhoven, the Netherlands (2010-2016). Currently, she serves as marimba editor for Percussive Notes (magazine of the Percussive Arts Society), and on the Advisory Board of The Gunther Schuller Society. Zeltsman is a Pearl/Adams Artist. Adams Musical Instruments released their Nancy Zeltsman Signature marimba in 2021. Her popular line of signature Encore Mallets is available through Salyers Percussion. Nancy graduated from New England Conservatory 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). She grew up in northern New Jersey, then went to study in Boston where she has spent most of her life.
Bio last updated December 2025 | * Colin Currie, “Taking center stage: percussionist as soloist,” The Cambridge Companion to Percussion | Photo of Nancy: Claudia Hansen