Jason K. Nitsch

Jason K. Nitsch was born September 20, 1977 and is a native of Houston, Texas. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from the Baylor University School of Music in Waco, TX and a Masters of Music in Music Education from Boston University. He is currently pursuing his DMA in Music Education at Boston University with a focus on research into the connection between classroom assessment and student mindset/motivation in the large ensemble instrumental music classroom.

During his undergraduate studies Jason became quite interested in arranging, and subsequently, formal composition. His initial arrangements were well-received and he soon found himself inundated with requests for custom arrangements. During this time, Jason also began composing original works of varied instrumentation and was encouraged by his professors and colleagues to continue exploring this developing talent. While he enjoys traditional compositional pursuits, he recently began integrating electronic tracks into his solo and chamber music. He hopes to work diligently to bring this manner of composition into his large ensemble works in the future, and to create new and innovative connections between traditional performance techniques and contemporary music technologies. Since 1998 he has worked as a music and visual designer for marching bands across the United States, providing custom arrangements, original music compositions and visual coordination and design to his clients. In 2009 he launched Suburban Zombie Music (www.suburbanzombiemusic.com) to promote and distribute his entire catalog of original compositions.

As an educator, he has taught middle school and high school band for 19 years in Texas and Colorado. He has remained active as an educator, designer, and adjudicator for the marching arts, having provided original music, custom music arrangements, and visual and drill design for marching bands across the country. He is currently the Director of Bands at Memorial High School in Frisco, TX, which opened in the fall of 2018.

He lives in Frisco, Texas with his wife Nicole and daughters Ainsley and Payton.