Zank began studying piano and composition at age seven in Binghamton, New York. His training in performance at the New England Conservatory in Boston was followed by four years of study in Paris, and graduate studies in historical musicology. He has taught at the State University of New York campuses at Binghamton and Oneonta, at Hartwick College in New York, and at Denison University in Ohio. He is an assistant professor of music at the Univeristy of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.