Leslie Nelson Shultis was born in Chicago and moved to New Mexico with her family when she was fourteen. She is a graduate of the University of New Mexico where she received a Bachelor’s degree in bassoon performance and a Master’s in composition. Her teachers included Artemus Edwards, Scott Wilkinson and Dr. William Wood. She is currently a full-time music instructor at Central New Mexico Community College and performs regularly as a bassoonist with The Santa Fe Symphony and Bosque Bassoon Band. She frequently performs or has performed with other groups in the state including the New Mexico Philharmonic, Opera Southwest, Santa Fe Pro Musica, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, New Mexico Woodwind Quintet, and the Chamber Orchestra of Albuquerque. She has also performed as a bassoonist in Mexico, Italy and Germany. As a composer, Ms. Shultis was a stipendium recipient for the Internationale Ferienkurse fuer Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany where she studied with Morton Feldman. She was active as a member of the New Mexico Women Composers’ Guild and served as grant writer, bassoonist and director for “A Program of New Music by Women Composers of New Mexico.” In 2005 Shultis was the commissioned composer for the Professional Music Teachers of New Mexico. That same year she attended and participated in “I giorni di Pulcheria” in Piacenza, Italy where her composition “Still…” was performed.

When not teaching or performing, Leslie enjoys spending time making jewelry, studying foreign languages, travelling, and going to art exhibits with her artist son Mike.