Dr. Wendy Zander – Bands

B Mus, B.Ed. (Brandon), MMus (University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota),  DMA (University of North Texas, Denton, Texas)

Symphonic Band, Graduate and Undergraduate Conducting, and Instrumental Music Education

Dr. Wendy Zander is a Professor in the Brandon University School of Music where she conducts the Symphonic Band and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in music education and conducting.

Committed to excellence in music education, Zander taught band and general elementary music before pursuing graduate studies.  In addition to designing professional development sessions for music educators, she has presented at provincial music education conferences, College Band Directors National Association regional conference, and the International Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic.  Her work as a solo and ensemble adjudicator and clinician for concert and jazz ensembles has taken her across Canada and the United States.  She serves as guest conductor of university, community, and military ensembles, as conductor at the International and Rushmore Music Camps, and as facilitator of conducting symposia.  She has conducted junior high and high school regional, provincial, and state honor bands and was the conductor of the 2018 National Youth Band of Canada.

Zander has worked to create professional opportunities for students and music educators in the areas of performance and music education.  For fifteen years Zander hosted Avenues: Exploring Band and Jazz Methods, an annual summer professional development workshop at Brandon University.  She is Faculty Advisor for the Brandon University Student Music Educators Association (BUSMEA), the organization that hosts the annual Da Capo professional development conference.  The Brandon University Symphonic Band, with Zander as conductor, performed as the featured ensemble at the 2009 Atlantic Band Festival in Halifax, Nova Scotia and the 2013 Con Brio Music Festival in Whistler, British Columbia.  Zander was awarded Brandon University Alumni Association’s Excellence in Teaching Award as well as the Manitoba Band Association’s Award of Distinction and the Canadian Band Association’s National Band Award.  She is a Teaching Affiliate with Brandon University’s Centre for Teaching, Learning, and Technology and an Educational Clinician with the Conn-Selmer Division of Education.

Zander holds the Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Education degrees from Brandon University and completed a Master of Music in Instrumental Conducting at the University of North Dakota with Gordon Brock and James Popejoy.  She received her Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of North Texas where she served as a Doctoral Conducting Associate and Teaching Fellow in the Wind Studies Department with Eugene Migliaro Corporon.  She completed her cognate studies in Music Education with Deborah Rohwer and Darhyl Ramsey.

Zander worked as Lead Writer of the Manitoba Grade 9-12 Music Curriculum Framework, has published in Canadian Winds, and is a regular contributor to the publication and recording series Teaching Music Through Performance in Band and Teaching Music Through Performance in Beginning Band.  She is former President of the Manitoba Band Association and Canadian Band Association.  Zander, active as a conductor and clinician, investigates areas related to teaching and learning, conducting, and instrumental literature as curriculum in the music classroom.