Zebulon M. Highben
Zebulon M. Highben
Associate Professor of the Practice of Church Music at Duke Divinity School and Director of Chapel Music at Duke University Chapel
Degrees
B.M.E. in Vocal and General Music Education (Ohio State University)
M.S.M. in Conducting (Luther Seminary with St. Olaf College)
D.M.A. in Conducting (Michigan State University)
Dr. Highben’s research interests include hymnody, liturgy, music and exegesis, the musical heritage of the Reformation, and the impact of the Second World War on German sacred music. His published scholarship includes numerous articles and essays on the practice of church music, two choral anthologies (the Augsburg Motet Book and the Augsburg Chorale Book), a Festschrift in honor of composer Ronald A. Nelson, and more than fifty choral and liturgical compositions published in the United States and Sweden. Highben has received conducting and/or composition awards from The American Prize, the American Choral Directors Association, the American Composers Forum, the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Prior to his appointments at Duke Chapel and Duke Divinity School, he served as associate professor of music at Muskingum University, where he was the 2019 recipient of the faculty’s William Rainey Harper Award for Excellence in Scholarship. Highben has served as a church musician for Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist congregations, most recently at Trinity United Methodist Church in Columbus, Ohio. He is an ordained deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
