American Gifts for Marimba Duo Jack Van Geem & Nancy Zeltsman

• Irving Fine (1914 - 1962): Music for Piano (Arr. J. Van Geem & N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo):
• 1 Music for Piano (Arr. J. Van Geem & N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo): I. Prelude 01:12
• 2 Music for Piano (Arr. J. Van Geem & N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo): II. Waltz-Gavotte 03:34
• 3 Music for Piano (Arr. J. Van Geem & N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo): IIIa. Variations. Andante 01:36
• 4 Music for Piano (Arr. J. Van Geem & N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo): IIIb. Variations. Allegro 01:41
• 5 Music for Piano (Arr. J. Van Geem & N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo): IIIc. Variations. Andante 02:11
• 6 Music for Piano (Arr. J. Van Geem & N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo): IIId. Variations. Lento assai 01:28
• 7 Music for Piano (Arr. J. Van Geem & N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo): IV. Interlude - Finale 03:10
• Roger Sessions (1896 - 1985): Piano Sonata No. 1 (Arr. N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo):
• 8 Piano Sonata No. 1 (Arr. N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo): I. Andante 02:13
• 9 Piano Sonata No. 1 (Arr. N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo): II. Allegro 05:31
• 10 Piano Sonata No. 1 (Arr. N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo): III. Andante 04:17
• 11 Piano Sonata No. 1 (Arr. N. Zeltsman for Marimba Duo): IV. Molto vivace 06:09
• Joseph Brackett (1797 - 1882):
• 12 Tis a Gift to Be Simple (Arr. for Marimba Duo) 02:14
• Michael Tilson Thomas (b. 1944): Island Music:
• 13 Island Music: Introduction "Long Familiar Refrains" (Live) 03:51
• 14 Island Music, Pt. 1: Thoughts on the Dance Floor (Live) 06:11
• 15 Island Music, Pt. 2: In the Clearing (Live) 13:52
• 16 Island Music, Pt. 3: Ride Outs (Live) 06:57
• Total Runtime 01:06:07

Info for American Gifts for Marimba Duo

"American Gifts" features composer Michael Tilson Thomas's "Island Music" (2003), a charming and effervescent work performed by duo marimbists, Jack Van Geem and Nancy Zeltsman with members of the San Francisco Symphony percussion section. Van Geem and Zeltsman also give virtuosic readings of music by Irving Fine, Roger Sessions, and Joseph Brackett-American gifts spanning 155 years.

Jack Van Geem has been the principal percussion and assistant timpanist of the San Francisco Symphony for 23 years. He has performed and recorded with the symphony as a mallet soloist, solo timpanist, snare drum soloist and featured solo percussionist. Before joining the Symphony in 1981, he performed for five years with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. He studied in Germany with Cristoph Caskel on a Hertz Fellowship and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from California State University - Hayward, where he also taught.

In addition to his work with the San Francisco Symphony, Van Geem has recorded and performed chamber music, music soundtracks and marimba and xylophone music. For over 30 years, Nancy Zeltsman's work as a marimba performer and teacher has been a force in introducing more people to the marimba, and elevating it as a vehicle for musical expression. Many of her former students are noted rising stars. She's performed internationally as a soloist and chamber musician, recorded many albums and for 14 years has run a two-week summer event, Zeltsman Marimba Festival.

"[The piece is] a doozy, beginning in mystery and closing in riotous celebration. The island in question is Bali, and one of the currents that flows into the music is gamelan (both its ounds and the development of the rhythmic structures). But the piece also reflects the origins of the [marimba], the melting pot of American popular music of the 30s--and Thomas` informed knowledge of such folk-influenced concert works as Bartok's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion. Simply sensational." (The Boston Globe)

Jack Van Geem, marimba, percussion
Nancy Zeltsman, marimba
Raymond Froehlich, percussion
James Lee Wyatt III, percussion
David Herbert, percussion
Tom Hemphill, percussion

Jack Van Geem
retired as Principal Percussionist and Assistant Timpanist with the San Francisco Symphony in 2012, a position he held for 32 years. He is Chairman of Percussion Studies at San Francisco Conservatory where he has taught since 1991. He taught at The Colburn School in Los Angeles from 2006 to 2015. Having taught at nearly every ZMF event since 2001, Jack estimates that, all told, he has spent half a year of his life at ZMF! He also serves as its Vice President.

Van Geem began playing the marimba at age four. He studied percussion with Tony Cirone and Jerome Neff earning his Master of Arts degree from California State University at Hayward. He studied contemporary percussion performance with Cristoph Caskel in Germany in the mid-70s on a scholarship from the University of California at Berkeley. Following that, he was percussionist for the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra for five years until he won the SFS position.

Nancy Zeltsman
is a leading marimba performer, teacher, and festival director. She has premiered over 125 solo/chamber marimba works including compositions by Paul Simon, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gunther Schuller, Carla Bley, Louis Andriessen, Steven Mackey, Lyle Mays, and Robert Aldridge. Alejandro Vinao and Paul Lansky both wrote their first pieces for marimba for Nancy (which have been followed by many other works for marimba and percussion). From 1985 to 1996, Nancy was a member of the duo Marimolin with violinist Sharan Leventhal. (The duo has performed together again occasionally since 2015.) The 80 works they premiered probably stand as the largest body of pieces for marimba and another instrument.

Zeltsman has presented recitals and marimba master classes across the U.S. and Europe and in China, Japan, and Mexico. Venues include the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall in New York, subscription concerts with the San Francisco Symphony, and Shenzhen Concert Hall.

Zeltsman is a Professor at joint institutions Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory at Berklee and heads the Conservatory percussion department. She has taught marimba at both schools since 1993 in positions that were created for her, and where she created unique undergraduate and graduate courses of study focused on marimba. Since 2001, she has been Artistic Director of Zeltsman Marimba Festival which produces two-week seminars (ZMF) and 4 to 6-day seminars (ZMF On Tour) held in varying locations around the world (www.ZMF.us). In the fall of 2013, Nancy was appointed regular guest teacher of marimba at Conservatorium van Amsterdam where she teaches two weeks each year.

Her method book, "Four Mallet Marimba Playing: A Musical Approach for All Levels" (Hal Leonard Corporation) is widely used. She edited "Intermediate Masterworks for Marimba": 24 marimba solos presented in two volumes, commissioned through ZMF with support from over 200 contributors (C.F. Peters Corporation). She was a jury member for the Tromp International Percussion Competition in Eindhoven, the Netherlands in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016.

Recordings include three solo CDs ("Woodcuts," "See Ya Thursday" and "Sweet Song"); three CDs with Marimolin ("Marimolin," "Phantasmata," and "Combo Platter"); William Thomas McKinley's marimba concerto recorded with Boston Modern Orchestra Project; and a duo marimba CD with Jack Van Geem ("Pedro and Olga Learn to Dance"). Several videos are on YouTube (Messiaen, Michalek, Levitan, Bernstein).

Nancy graduated from New England Conservatory of Music with a degree in percussion performance (BM, 1982) where she studied with Vic Firth. Other teachers included Ian Finkel, Robert Ayers, Donald Marrs and Dave Samuels. A Pearl/Adams artist, she endorses marimbas made by Adams Musical Instruments (in the Netherlands) and her signature line of Encore Mallets. Nancy resides in Boston, Massachusetts.

Booklet for American Gifts for Marimba Duo