Bradley University
Illinois Wesleyan University
Keith M. Zimmerman taught saxophone and music education at Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois, for several decades until the fall of 2013. He was also the saxophone and music theory teacher for the summer band camps for 25 years. In August, 2000 he was invited to additionally join the music faculty at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, as saxophone professor. He is the former director of the highly respected Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band at Lincoln, Illinois District 27 Schools, a position he held for 33 years until late May, 2000 while also teaching at Illinois Wesleyan and performing. He continues to be in demand as a private saxophone teacher for many students from a large geographical area of central Illinois and has served the Illinois Music Educator's Association as saxophone auditioner for the All State festival bands for 45 years.
He earned a B.M.E. and an M.M. in saxophone performance from Illinois Wesleyan University in 1967and 1970, respectively, and did graduate study with American concert saxophone pioneer Cecil Leeson at Ball State University. He also was a student of Canadian concert saxophonist Paul Brodie,and, as the recipient of a scholarship from the French Ministry of Culture, he pursued extensive post-graduate study in France with Daniel Deffayet, professor of saxophone at the Paris National Conservatory while living in Nice and Paris, France, ultimately earning two diplomas.
Mr. Zimmerman's saxophone playing and teaching career was extensively profiled in a cover story interview in the January/February 2002 issue of the international The Saxophone Journal. The Saxophone Journal will again feature him on the cover and in an inside interview in the May/June 2012 issue.
A founding member of the World Saxophone Congress and the North American Saxophone Alliance,Zimmerman has frequently performed for regional, national, and international meetings of those bodies. He has appeared in concert in Canada, France, England, and Germany and many parts of the U.S. as a soprano, alto, and tenor saxophonist. From 1972 he helped found the Illinois Saxophone Quintet which he played in until the quintet disbanded in 1994. His recitals have been broadcast a number of times on PBS radio.
From 1982-1995 he frequently played lead alto saxophone for the Ringling Brothers Circus and since 1994 has been first alto saxophonist with the Pekin, Illinois Municipal Band and is a saxophone artist/clinician for Conn-Selmer Company whose Serie III Paris Selmer saxophones he plays.
"Expressions" solo alto and soprano with piano includes Lunde Sonata II for alto, Zimmerman Reflections for solo soprano, transcriptions by Brodie, Mule, and others of light classics.
"The Illinois Saxophone Quintet" soprano, 2 altos, tenor, bari: Albinoni, Bach, Mozart, Sibbing, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Scott, Hertzer, J.S. Bach, Debussy and others
available from zsaxman@mtco.com/Keith Zimmerman, 108 Fayette Ct., Washington, Il 61571 each $13 plus $2 postage or from Jeanne', Inc.
108 Fayette Ct., Washington, Il 61571
zsaxman@mtco.com