Nicholas Enz serves as the Director of Bands at St. Ambrose University, where he conducts the Symphonic Band and the Jazz Ensemble and teaches courses in music, music education, and music technology. He also leads the American Prize-winning Quad City Wind Ensemble. Before joining the faculty at St. Ambrose University, he served as the Director of Bands at Michigan Technological University and taught in the Copper Country Intermediate School District.
Throughout his career, Enz has earned distinctions teaching at the college and high school levels. His high school jazz program received numerous awards and recognitions, including "Outstanding Jazz Ensemble" at the Northern Michigan University Jazz Festival and second place at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Jazz Festival. The program also received eight grants from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs. The Michigan Tech Superior Wind Symphony embarked on six performance tours and was honored as an ensemble-in-residence at the Historic Ironwood Theatre. The 250-member Michigan Tech Huskies Pep Band was selected four times by the WCHA as the host band for the WCHA/NCAA Final Five Hockey Tournament. Enz received the 2016-17 St. Ambrose Faculty of the Year Award.
Under Enz's leadership, the St. Ambrose Symphonic Band has traveled internationally to perform in Ireland and Greece. Notably, the band was invited by the Mayor and Vice Mayor of Palaio Faliro (a municipality of Athens) to perform as part of a music and culture exchange between the United States and Greece on Greece's Memorial Day. Additionally, they were invited to be the first band from the United States to perform with the Royal Irish Academy of Music Band on their season finale concert in Dublin, Ireland.
Dr. Enz served on the K-12 Music Curriculum and Standards Review Committee for the State of Michigan. He currently serves as the chair of the Iowa Bandmasters College Affairs Committee. His research has been published in UPDATE: Applications of Research in Music Education and presented at conferences throughout the United States and internationally at the Internationale Gesellschaft zur Erforschung und Förderung der Blasmusik Conference (International Society for Research and Promotion of Wind Music) in Wadgassen, Germany with a forthcoming presentation in Valencia, Spain in Summer of 2024. He co-authored a chapter on programming for CBDNA's Guidebook for the Small College Band Program. Additionally, he served as an assistant producer for The Ohio State University Wind Symphony's NAXOS recording, Network.
An active guest conductor and clinician, Enz has made appearances throughout the Midwest and Great Lakes region, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Illinois, Tennessee, Kansas, and Ohio. As a saxophonist, he has performed with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and the Pine Mountain Music Festival Symphony Orchestra. Enz was also a featured soloist with the Keweenaw Symphony Orchestra.
Outside of music, Enz enjoys photography and as a college student won multiple Kansas Associated Collegiate Press awards for his photos and photo essays.