During the October 5, 2018, PDG/PP Dave Ewing presented Gerhardt Zimmermann with a Paul Harris Fellow. Also in attendance to present this award was PDG Geoff Goll, who serves as the District 6650 Foundation PolioPlus Chair.Maestro Zimmermann is in his 35th year as Music Director and Conductor of the Canton Symphony Orchestra. Zimmermann's energetic and vibrant performances have drawn invitations to appear on the podium with the Cleveland, Chicago, National, Pittsburgh,m Atlanta, New Jersey, Syracuse, Rochester and San Antonio Orchestras. Other guest appearances include the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris, the Toronto Symphony, the Calgary Philharmonic, Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago's Grant Park, and the Colorado Philharmonic. As comfortable with opera as he is on the concert stage, the Maestro has conducted staged works of Mozart, Verdi, Strauss Jr., Puccini and Gershwin, and made his debut with the Cleveland Opera in February 2006. During the 2011-2012 season, he returned as guest conductor of the Tulsa Symphony Orchestra and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 2006, Zimmermann was named Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Texas, Austin. This past summer, he returned to the Breckenridge Music Festival for his 21st season as Music Director and Principal Conductor. Zimmermann also was the Music Director and Conductor of the North Carolina Symphony for 21 seasons from 1982-2002.
Born in Ohio, Mr. Zimmermann and his wife, Sharon, have two children, Anna Marie and Peter Karl Irum and two granddaughters, Trinity Rose and Emmeline Abigail.