Hailed an “excellent timpanist” by the Baltimore Sun, Arlo Shultis holds a wide range of orchestral experience, and has worked closely with many prominent conductors. For the past five years, Arlo has served as principal timpanist/percussionist of the Marlboro Music Festival Orchestra, conducted by Leon Fleischer and Mitsuko Uchida. Shultis has frequently performed as Principal Timpanist of the Yale Philharmonia under the direction of Peter Oundjian. As Principal Timpanist of the Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Arlo has recorded the music of Aaron Kernis under the baton of Marin Alsop and Leonard Slatkin. Other conductors that Arlo has shared the stage with include Ludovic Marlot, David Robertson, Markus Stenz, and Hugh Wolf.
A versatile performer, Arlo plays comfortably as a chamber musician and solo percussionist, just as he does an orchestral timpanist and percussionist. Notable solo performances include David Lang’s “The Anvil Chorus,” and Iannis Xenakis’ “Psappha,” at the Yale School of Music. As a member of the Yale Percussion Group, Shultis has performed Steven Mackey’s “It Is Time,” a 40 minute percussion quartet exploring the complexity and inevitability of “time,”commissioned by So Percussion. As a former member of the Michigan Percussion Quartet, Arlo was invited to perform a concert at the Stellenbosch International Chamber Music Festival in South Africa. As part of this trip, the quartet traveled to several local schools to perform interactive masterclasses with students in the greater Cape Town area.
In 2014, Arlo recorded the Grammy nominated “L’Orestie d’Eschyle,” by Darius Milhaud, as a member of the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra and Percussion Ensemble. Shultis was the winner of the University of Michigan Symphony Band Concerto Competition in 2014, in which he performed Michael Daugherty’s “Raise the Roof” for Solo Timpani and Wind Ensemble, the performance of which can be found on YouTube. Arlo is on the percussion faculty of the Baylor University School of Music as Lecturer of Percussion.