Pete Zambito is an Assistant Teaching Professor and the Assistant Director of Athletic Bands at the University of Missouri. He is involved with Marching Mizzou as the Assistant Director and Coordinator of Large Events, and is the Director for Mini Mizzou for the Women's Volleyball squad. He rejoins Mizzou after previously working there as Adjunct Assistant Professor of Percussion nearly a decade earlier, when he led MU Steel, Mizzou's Steel Band, taught applied percussion lessons, and led Drumset Class.
Previously, Dr. Zambito was the Associate Professor of Music, Percussion Instructor, and the Drumline Instructor for the Groove Dynasty Drumline at Lincoln University of Missouri. He taught applied percussion lessons for majors and non majors, taught Percussion Techniques Class, directed the Percussion Ensemble, and led the Sacred Music Internship Program at Lincoln University.
Since relocating to Missouri in 2006, he has performed across the state and is currently the principal timpanist for the Marshall (MO) Philharmonic Orchestra. He has been a section percussionist for the Missouri Symphony Orchestra and the Columbia Civic Orchestra. He is also a frequent performer on the Odyssey Chamber Series in Columbia, Missouri.
Previously, Dr. Zambito directed the percussion program at Concord University in Athens, WV. In addition to teaching class piano and arranging and scoring, he ran the percussion studio, directed the marching band drumline, the basketball pep band, and in his final semester, directed the concert band.
As a performer, Dr. Zambito has toured extensively throughout the Southeast and Midwest as a marimbist, including a duet tour throughout North Carolina and West Virginia with trombonist Daniel Rice, and solo tours of Virginia and South Carolina. In addition, he has worked as pianist and percussionist for a variety of churches and has performed professionally as a section percussionist in the Salisbury (NC) Symphony Orchestra. He is also a commissioned composer of percussion solos, duets, and ensemble works, many of which are available through C. Alan Publications. In 2014, he released his first solo CD, Marimba, comprised of his own works alongside original and transcribed works.
Dr. Zambito holds a B.A. degree in music performance with a focus on piano from Wake Forest University, and M.M. and D M.A. degrees in percussion performance from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. In February 2008, his article, “Marimba Transcriptions of Piano Literature,” based on his dissertation, was published in Percussive Notes. He spent 3 years as an editor and engraver at C. Alan Publications, and has been a frequent contributor as coordinator and clinician at the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy. Dr. Zambito is a Vic Firth Artist and Educational endorser.