Dr. Christian Zembower is Director of Band Studies and Professor of Music at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City, Tennessee. His duties include conducting the Wind Ensemble and teaching beginning and advanced conducting, instrumental music education methods courses, supervising student teachers, and with the associate and assistant director of bands, assisting in 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, and was then reinstated in 2023 to the present. Since its inception in 1992, this ensemble has recorded and produced over 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.
In June, 2025, as conductor of this semi-professional ensemble, Dr. Zembower founded the Tri-Star Wind Ensemble, which is a concert band comprised of approximately 60 woodwind, brass and percussion players, and is sponsored by East Tennessee State University, and all members have a direct affiliation with the university as alumni, faculty, students or administrators. This ensemble was formed for the main purpose of performing classic, contemporary and new works from the concert band repertoire, with the express intent of bringing ETSU Bands alumni back together for a reunion atmosphere of musicmaking, fellowship, with a culminating performance. This ensemble returns to the ETSU campus every summer for rehearsals and a concert performance. The Tri-Star Wind Ensemble name and logo are trademarked.
Dr. Zembower holds memberships in the College Band Directors National Association, the East Tennessee School Band and Orchestra Association, the Tennessee Bandmasters Association, and the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles.