BIOGRAPHY
Of his professional debut, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Daily Telegraph of London wrote, “Contact with the orchestra seemed immediate, the result a reading in which the playing responded keenly to gestures which themselves were expressive both of the symphony’s fiery vigour and of its finer nuances. Christopher Zimmerman revealed a sharp interpretative profile and control of orchestral timbre....a most auspicious London debut.”

Critics have continued to sing Zimmerman’s praises, most recently for his performances as Music Director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra -- “a crisp baton technique, sure cues and strong body language - all mercifully without mannerisms or artifice -- he drew shimmering pianissimi or volcanic utterance from the orchestra in all the works” -- and in guest engagements in Europe and the Americas, with recent appearances in Venezuela, Finland, Prague & Mexico, as well as closer to home in the U.S. The Cleveland Plain Dealer described his performance with the Ohio Chamber Orchestra in 1999 as “some of the finest conducting at Severance (Hall) in recent years.”

Christopher Zimmerman graduated from Yale with a B.A. in Music, and received his Master’s from the University of Michigan. He also studied with Seiji Ozawa and Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood, and at the Pierre Monteux School in Maine. Zimmerman served as an apprentice to Andrew Davis and the Toronto Symphony and in Prague as assistant conductor to Vaclav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Zimmerman made his professional debut in 1985 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, followed by engagements with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. He conducted the Prague Symphony and Slovak Philharmonic orchestras; he was the assistant conductor for “Carmen” at Nimes, and for “Salome” at Mexico City Opera, where he was reinvited to conduct their production of “Gianni Schicchi.” In 1989 he co-founded and became Music Director of the City of London Chamber Orchestra.

In 1993 Christopher Zimmerman became Music Director of the Cincinnati Concert Orchestra. He made his U.S. operatic debut conducting this orchestra in a production of “Susannah” by Carlisle Floyd, and has since conducted “The Turn of the Screw,” “Gianni Schicchi,” “Suor Angelica,” “Don Pasquale,” “The Song of Majnun,” and “Julius Caesar,” the last two winning the National Opera Association’s First Prize. In 1999 Zimmerman was a featured conductor in the American Symphony Orchestra League’s Conductors’ Preview with the Utah Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Zimmerman was appointed to succeed Werner Torkanowsky as Music Director of the Bangor Symphony Orchestra in 1994 and in 1999 was appointed Music Director of the Hartt Symphony. In 2001 Mr. Zimmerman was appointed Music Director of the Symphony of Southeast Texas.