CRITICAL ACCLAIM
"Christopher Zimmerman showed up on the orchestra's podium Friday at Severance Hall and catapulted works by Mendelssohn, Ginastera, Elgar and Haydn to the heights.  This was some of the finest conducting at Severance Hall in recent years. The fact that the orchestra responded so brilliantly to its guest’s artistry (which) suggests a longing for leadership of such taste, energy and emotional generosity. Zimmerman ... was sensitive to the stylistic needs of each piece and clear in conveying his ideas to the musicians. He is a conductor whose ideas begin with the composer.... Zimmerman simply immersed himself in the score’s (Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro for Strings) passion and pastoral beauty, conducting without baton like a chamber musician in intense conversation with inspired colleagues. The playing had warmth, vigor and biting articulation. Have these strings ever sounded better?... Has the entire orchestra ever sounded better?”
Donald Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Zimmerman shaped the broodingly expressive paragraphs (of Shostakovich’s Tenth) with great care, using a fair measure of rhythmic flexibility and such haunting moments as the transition of the second subject from flute to violins had considerable atmosphere. The scherzo, crackling with venom, highlighted the orchestra’s flair for highly charged musical rhetoric without engulfing its evocative tone-painting, and the finale put the inherent nobility of the work into perspective.”
Neil Tierney, The Daily Telegraph, London

"There are debuts and then there's what Christopher Zimmerman produced Thursday night as the new Maestro of the Symphony of Southeast Texas.  Zimmerman chose Shostakovich's Tenth Symphony.  His was a bold selection that produced a concert that left many of us searching for adjectives--the really big ones, such as sublime and spectacular...  It must have been wonderful to play a symphony as important as this one with such inspiration.  The talent of the musicians was unparalleled and Zimmerman was brilliant.  Zimmerman proved Thursday night why he is exactly the right choice to lead the Symphony of Southeast Texas.  It is not just his panache but his ability to deliver musical excellence.  The audience, a robust one, clearly appreciated that. The standing ovation was awesome. It seemed that that the concert-goers couldn't get to their feet fast enough to stand and applaud."
Shari Fey/Beaumont Enterprise

“The evening’s star was actually guest conductor Christopher Zimmerman. The evening opened with Verdi’s La Forza del Destino Overture, a work the Edmonton SO has played many times but never with such impassioned boldness and clarity ... but the great event was Brahms’ First Symphony. Zimmerman gave the work great space and brought out many details, especially in the cellos and double basses. The strings have seldom sounded sweeter and the brooding opening was properly weighty. The troubled slow movement was beautiful, and every phrase sang. The finale had unusual breadth and nobility right on to the blazing final pages. This was a masterly and mature performance and many in the audience gave Zimmerman a standing ovation.”
John Charles, The Edmonton Sunday Sun

“The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra introduced the young British conductor Christopher Zimmerman.... In such a familiar work as the “New World” symphony, it was refreshing to hear the music re-invigorated through Mr. Zimmerman’s clear sighted approach, one in which he allowed nothing to detract from a well-conceived plan and a perceptive instinct for instrumental detail. 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. It was not at all surprising to read that Mr. Zimmerman had spent most of the past year working with Vaclav Neumann in Prague, for this interpretation, while asserting the strong individual personality, was thoroughly at one with its idiomatic Czech colouring and to its natural rhythmic ebbs and flows. In Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, too, it was good to hear such life breathed into the orchestral accompaniment to Marios Papadopoulos’ bold account of the solo part, a boldness not wholly justified by some accident prone octaves but one which underlined the essential spirit of his playing. Mr. Zimmerman also revealed a sharp interpretative profile and control of orchestral timbre in Sibelius’ “Finlandia”, throwing the music into sharp relief and contributing to this most auspicious London debut.”
Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph, London

“With 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. With Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem, he asked for brooding, elegiac sonorities for the Lacrymosa: a shattering intensity for the Dies Irae; and a mystical note of tranquility and reconciliation for the Requiem aeternam. Zimmerman’s view of Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 underscored its lyricism, its lightness — not levity — and wit.... His baton technique was solid, his cuing expert and his shaping of the movements within the whole structure remarkably precise. At no point did he descend into histrionics or cheap tricks to win over the audience and the members of the orchestra.”
Robert Newall, Maine Times

“A very important role in the evening’s success was British-American conductor Christopher Zimmerman’s. We could hear his deep relationship and understanding of Czech music. It was with the help of Vaclav Neumann, during Zimmerman’s assistantship to him, that this was built and refined.”
Telegraf, Prague Spring Festival (translated)

“The concert began with the quivering strings of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4. (Zimmerman) moved slowly, filling the hall with suspense and expectation as the audience waited for the full glory of the first theme. And when the music cut loose, the musicians ran high and mighty with it. There was control in every careful note of urgency. There was grace in every turn, around every wily corner. The musicians pulsated through the adagio, danced through the allegro vivace, and landed in light and clean semi quavers for the finale. When the piece ended, clearly they felt exhilarated too, and beamed at their leader. It seemed that Zimmerman was inseparable from the musicians. Conductor and orchestra seemed to breathe as one.”
Alicia Anstead, Bangor Daily News