Charismatic Percussionist to Take the Stage

Percussionist Chen Zimbalista has astounded audiences on several continents with his explosive, unclassifiable percussion concerts. When he performs at UD's Boll Theatre on Wednesday, February 10, he'll be joined by the equally accomplished jazz drummer Lewis Nash.

Critical response to Zimbalista and his performances has been positive and enthusiastic, with one Los Angeles critic wondering why Zimbalista isn’t a well-known superstar in this spectacle-loving country of ours. The Los Angeles Times adds that “Zimbalista is a young, muscular, intense dynamo with charisma to burn and a precise technique that knows no stylistic bounds. He’s also a showman…Why can’t all drum solos be like this?”

“Chen Zimbalista is a throwback to the days when ‘entertainer’ wasn’t a pejorative term,” notes a glowing concert review in San Francisco Classical Voice. “He radiates energy onstage, tells stories, indulges in audience participation, choreographs the beginnings and ends of pieces in true showman style, mines a wide variety of musical genres from around the globe, and exemplifies the old Italian art of sprezzatura, making nearly impossible technical challenges seem easy.”

Lewis Nash has been hailed by prominent jazz critic Gary Giddins for being “resourceful, inventive, subtle and infallibly tasteful” and “the great drummer of his generation.” He is widely acclaimed by critics, fans and musicians alike for his superior musicianship, peerless musical empathy, endless versatility and wide-ranging creativity—pretty much everything one might hope for in a musician.