NANCY ZYLSTRA
Soprano Nancy Zylstra has earned critical acclaim and recognition for her pure and expressive singing in a wide variety of repertoire. She performed with such conductors as James De Priest, Andrew Parrott, Gustav Leonhardt, Ton Koopman, Jeffrey Thomas, and with orchestras such as the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Tafelmusik, Northwest Chamber Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orhestra, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, and the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival Orchestra. She performed on early music festivals in Vancouver, Anchorage, Berlin, Versailles, Berkeley, Sharon (Ontario) and Regensburg. Her performances have been heard on NPR, Minnesota Public Radio, and on radio in The Netherlands and Germany.
Ms. Zylstra is in demand as a voice teacher, historical performance coach, and Singing Voice Specialist. As well as maintaining a private studio, for the 2001-2003 academic year she held an interim position at the University of Washington. She has also taught studio voice at Cornish College of the Arts, and Pacific Lutheran University. Since 1979 she has been on the faculty of Oberlin Conservatory’s “Baroque Performance Institute”. A popular clinician, she has taught master classes at the University of Washington, Portland State University, Reed College, Swarthmore College, Willamette University, University of Toronto, for the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and at the Voice Foundation’s annual symposiums in Philadelphia. She is also a frequent presenter of voice workshops to choirs throughout the area.
She has taught at the Vancouver Early Music Workshop and Festival, the Kitchener-Waterloo Baroque and Classical Workshop and is an ongoing faculty member of Accademia d’Amore and other workshops presented by Seattle Academy of Opera. Zylstra is vocal coach for the Medieval Women’s Choir. During the fall of 2007 she was the sabbatical replacement for their founding director, Margriet Tindemans.
Since 1998 Nancy Zylstra has had a series of ongoing informal internships in the office of Dr. Robert Thayer Sataloff of Philadelphia, studying with his Singing Voice Specialist, Margaret Baroody, the techniques used in a medical setting to help singers and speakers with voice-use problems.
Nancy Zylstra has just finished 6 years of service on the board of Early Music America, is a member of NATS, The Voice Foundation, and the Northwest Voice Foundation.
In the fall of 2008 she again joined the voice faculty of Pacific Lutheran University.
She has recorded on the Erato, Wildboar, Koch and Gasparo labels.