Nancy Zeltsman, who has been playing the marimba since the 1970s and in 2001 founded the Zeltsman Marimba Festival.
“THE marimba is coming of age right now, and you can't throw a dead cat without hitting a marimba concert.They are now beautiful-sounding, resonant, warm, rich things, There was a time 25 years ago when the marimba and the xylophone were different but not that different. Both had a kind of brittle sound. Now the marimba has really evolved a voice of its own and has distinguished itself from the tinkety-tinkety-tinkety wooden xylophone sound."
(composer and guitarist Steven Mackey)
Until recently only a handful of classical performers specialized in this exotic underdog instrument, but now there are virtuosos, festivals and international competitions dedicated to bringing it out from the shadows of its more established orchestral colleagues.
In comparison to concert-stage stalwarts like the violin, the marimba has a paltry solo repertory. Nancy Zeltsman, a pioneer who began playing the instrument seriously in the mid-1970s, is determined to change that. The Zeltsman Marimba Festival, which she founded in 2001, has commissioned prominent composers like Gunther Schuller and Louis Andriessen to write new pieces, some of which will be performed at this year's event, which begins July 6 at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.
