Dr. Christian Zembower is Director of Bands and Professor of Music at East Tennessee
State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. His duties include conducting the Wind
Ensemble and teaching advanced conducting, instrumental music education methods courses,
and with the associate director of bands assistance, leads all aspects concerning
the ETSU Bands program. Prior to his appointment in May, 2006 at ETSU, Dr. Zembower
served for eight years (1998 – 2006) as the assistant director of bands at Ball State
University in Muncie, Indiana. While at Ball State, his duties involved instructing
the “Pride of Mid-America” Marching Band, conducting the Symphony Band, teaching beginning
and intermediate conducting classes, and coordinating activities of the pep band during
the basketball season at BSU. Before going to Ball State in 1998, he taught on the
faculty as a doctoral graduate assistant at the University of Southern Mississippi,
and was director of bands at Musselman High School in Inwood, West Virginia from 1992
through 1996.
He holds a Doctorate in Music Education (emphasis in wind band) from the University
of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg where he studied with Dr. Thomas Fraschillo
and Dr. Charles Elliott, a Master of Arts degree in Music Education from Indiana University
of Pennsylvania where he studied with Dr. Jack Stamp and Dr. Gary Bird, a Bachelor
of Science degree in Music Education from Frostburg State University, and an Associate
in Arts degree from Potomac State College in Keyser, WV. An active and sought out
clinician and conductor, he has adjudicated and/or guest conducted middle school and
high school honor bands throughout the mid-Atlantic, mid-western, and southeastern
regions of the United States. Dr. Zembower has participated in various conducting
clinics receiving instruction from such notables as H. Robert Reynolds, Allan McMurray,
Craig Kirchoff, Tom Lee, Eugene Migliaro Corporon, and Jack Stamp. In April, 2010,
Dr. Zembower was awarded the honor of receiving a Distinguished Teaching Award in
the College of Arts and Sciences at ETSU. Of the three teaching awards given that
year, his was the only student-nominated application.
An avid performer on euphonium and trombone, Dr. Zembower is a founding member of
the Keystone Winds, a professional wind ensemble comprised of music alumni and faculty
from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, conducted by Jack Stamp, which was active
from 1992 to 2015. Since its inception in 1992, this ensemble has recorded and produced
twenty compact discs of classic and contemporary band literature on the Citadel, Klavier,
and GIA Publications recording labels. An active researcher, he has published articles
in the Journal of Band Research, the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles
(WASBE) Journal, Update, the Southeastern Journal of Music Education, The Instrumentalist,
The Tennessee Musician, The Indiana Musicator, and has contributed chapter analyses
in multiple volumes of the Teaching Music through Performance in Band series.
He holds memberships in the College Band Directors National Association, the National
Band Association, the East Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association, the Tennessee
Bandmasters Association, the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, and
the National Association for Music Education.