Dr. Domenico E. Zarro received his B.F.A. in Percussion Performance from the Purchase Conservatory of Music, and his Ed.M. and Ed.D., with a focus in Percussion Pedagogy, from Columbia University. He was a scholarship student at New Jersey City University, Columbia University, and the Aspen Festival School of Music. His doctoral dissertation was lauded by the Percussive Arts Society’s Research Committee, and was featured in the 2004 Edwin Mellen Press release: Theory and Composition of Percussion Music by Dr. Geary Larrick. In 2007 he was again a feature of an Edwin Mellen Press release when he wrote the preface to: The Late Life Reflections of a Retired Professor on Just About Everything In The World, also by Dr. Larrick. In addition, Dr. Zarro is the author of the blog: The Percussion Student which presents an in depth interview each month of the academic year on a prominent percussionist who also has an affinity for percussion pedagogy.
His articles have been published in Percussive Notes, Tempo Magazine, and the National Association of College, Wind and Percussion Instructors Journal. Whereas, his method books and compositions have been published by HaMaR Percussion, and Bandworks Publications. Moreover, Dr. Zarro has been invited to give presentations at colleges and universities, as well as at state, regional, national, and international conferences of the Percussive Arts Society, National Association for Music Education, College Music Society, the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, and the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy. He was also one of the New Jersey educators selected to create, write, and produce a one hour television program for students during the pandemic. This program which aired on NJTV/PBS is entitled, How Do Sounds Become Music.
Along with having served as the President of the New Jersey Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society, Dr. Zarro was an Adjunct Professor at Felician University where he founded the Felician Wind and Percussion Ensemble; as an Adjunct Professor at New Jersey City University where he created and taught the graduate course: Assessment Strategies in Music Education; and as an Instructor at Columbia University where he taught applied percussion to undergraduate and graduate students. Currently, he is an Instructor of Music for the Palisades Park School District where his duties have entailed being Director of the Palisades Park Cultural Arts Program; as a member of the Music Curriculum Committee; as founder of the Music Parents Association; as creator of the Computer Music Lab at its high school; and at its elementary school, where he founded the Lindbergh Symphonia: an advanced student ensemble that has received outstanding reviews by audiences, adjudicators, and guest conductors alike.
An artist with Grover Pro Percussion, Dr. Zarro recorded his solo CD: Music for Percussion with Mark Records, and served as the Principal Percussionist and Assistant Timpanist with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra where he performed with such artists as: Fran Warren, Bucky Pizzarelli, and Marlene Ver Planck. He has also performed with such ensembles as: the Aspen Festival Orchestra, Aspen Opera Orchestra, North Jersey Philharmonic, Imperial Brass, Garden State Concert Band, and the Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra; on such musical productions as: Man of La Mancha, Christmas Carol, Mack and Mabel, and Into The Woods; and with such conductors as: Lawrence Foster, David Gilbert, Bruno Ferrandis, and Patrick Burns. Furthermore, he won the 1994 Purchase Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, and has performed as a soloist with the Purchase Symphony Orchestra, the New Jersey City University Symphony Orchestra, and the New Jersey City University Percussion Ensemble.
