Daniel Zielske

Daniel Zielske is an artist, composer, musician and educator who has spent most of his life studying and teaching music and anthropology. In his life he has done over five-thousand professional productions, as either a performer, musician or in production and production assistant. Dan has worked as the director of non-profit organizations and is the founder and president of Dzanthro Entertainment.

Artist

Dan's experience in the arts first began at a young age when he would submit examples of his crafts and handy work at the local county fair. Later he would go on to leather crafting, ceramics, woodworking and painting during his high-school years. At the University, Dan completed a minor in art with painting and art history as his primary disciplines. He would show his work at local arts fairs and festivals such as People's Fair in Mankato. At this point music started to take a stronger role in his artistic journey. Dan's music moved out of the weekend show bands playing music written by someone else, to experiencing and creating his own works. He would later go on to help support other artists and musicians in his work as the Chapter Director of the Southern Minnesota Chapter of the American Composers Forum. Throughout this time Dan never really left the physical arts. He continued to create new paintings and he began to work more and more with computer generated art. This and other web sites are examples of some of the computer art Dan has created. Dan also works in computer animation, set design and film making with his company Dzanthro Entertainment. Dan has also published several small literary works through other web sites such as the BBC's web site H2G2 under the pen names of Waterfunkle Garvey and Grindle Thurdelwump.

Music

Dan’s music combines all aspects of his education using both instruments and forms of music from other cultures. Dan has also developed new theoretical interpretations of musical forms that are unique to his style of composition. He also likes to experiment with making his own instruments much in the same fashion as Harry Partch. Dan is able to give the listener a new pallet of sounds, exotic, but yet somewhat familiar to the western ear.

Dan’s earliest experiences in professional music began around the age of 12 when he and some of his fellow classmates started a performance act that had much success in its day. He played throughout Southern Minnesota & Northern Iowa in many of the ballrooms. They were hired quit often as a warm-up group for such national acts as Chameleon, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, The Little River Band, Ted Nugent and others. Dan continued to work in bands throughout his undergraduate carrier to help pay for his education. Throughout this time Dan learned advanced performance and production techniques. Later his interest in improvisation would allow him to get together with many of the areas musicians and hold concerts that were, for the most part, “improvisational jam sessions” that would be performed at local activities. Some of these improvisational concerts would be three to four hours long.

In the early 1990’s, while finishing up an MA in Anthropology, Dan decided to get a second degree in music. Studying under Steven Heitzig and David Dichau it was at this time when his first serious compositions came to be. Dan’s first classical work was Tina’s Sonata for Solo Piano, which received its world premiere at Mankato State University in 1991. Since then Dan has received a Masters of Arts and a Masters of Music. He has premiered over thirty musical works, three art films (complete with original film scores), published materials on the effects of music on physiology and the evolution of music in early hominids, published several CD’s of Native American songs and stories, rock operas, marching band scores, and provided music for a situation comedy called Josh and Sandi.

Dan produced and hosted the radio program Terra Musica and Minnesota Music Scene on the Maverick Radio Network. The show offered airtime with personal insights into Minnesota composers and songwriters. Dan produced the radio shows from 1989 to 2001.

Educator

Dan's first experiences as an educator began in high-school when he was asked to teach his biology class's chapter on Human Evolution. Dan was a State and International Science Fair winner and Mr. Joel Molyneux, his teacher, thought that teaching might be helpful for him when he would later reach graduate school. He was correct. Later, while an undergraduate at Minnesota State University - Mankato (previously known as Mankato State University), Dan would teach the High-School Bible Class for his home church. As one pastor retired and a more fundamentalist pastor came on board, Dan found himself pressured to leave the church because of his previous teaching of Evolution and the fact that Anthropology, which was Dan's major, adhered to science and not fundamentalist religious practices.

Leaving that part of his life behind, Dan went on to give private lessons in music, teach music for Project GEM (a non-profit organization that worked with small charter schools and special needs children to provide them an arts education experience) and also to teach music for the local Sheriff's School (teaching children, ages 10 through 17, who were under the supervision of the county's correctional facility and/or living in group homes). In this way, Dan became familiar with not only teaching at the K-12 level, but learned how to teach children with learning disabilities and troubled lives. "This knowledge is still useful today. From what I learned then, I can more easily spot difficulties in my college students and point them in the proper direction where they can find help and get through school."

Dan started teaching at the university level in 1989 as a graduate assistant for the Anthropology Dept. at Minnesota State University - Mankato (MSU). In 1991 Dan was offered an adjunct-professors position to teach remote locations courses through MSU's Extended Campus program. While in this program Dan was one of the first to start teaching on-line courses in the state of Minnesota. Dan has taught Anthropology for Minnesota State University, Gustavus Adolphus College and South Central College. Currently at South Central College (SCC) Dan is both the Anthropology and Music Departments, being the only teacher and giving half his time to each discipline, the college now offers a wider variety of subjects to their students. Dan has also given a number of presentations and guest lectures over the years; and has been published several times.

Professional Committees and Associations

Currently Dan serves on the Mahkato Pow-wow Association committee, Board of Trustees for Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, the Minnesota Arts in Education Consortium and is a Past President of the Board of Trustees for the Blue Earth County Historical Society. Dan is also a member of the American Anthropological Association, International Society of Shamanic Research, College Music Society, American Society of Composers, Authors and Producers (ASCAP), American Composers Forum, Minnesota On-Line Artists, Music and The Brain Consortium, Vote Yes for Minnesota Campaign and Mankato Diversity Kiwanis.

(For more of his professional vita, click on the experience link on the left)