Chester Englander
Cleveland State University - United States
Overview
Acclaimed for his “unnerving dexterity” (San Francisco Chronicle), his “boldly played” (Los Angeles Times), “vivid” (The New York Times), and “expert” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch) performances as the solo cimbalom of John Adams’ Scheherazade.2, and praised by the NYT for the “brilliant clarity” of his performance of the featured cimbalom part within Mr. Adams’ The Gospel According to the Other Mary, Chester Englander has a thriving career as a percussionist and cimbalom artist with orchestras throughout the country.
Chester has performed on percussion and/or cimbalom with the Atlanta Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Cincinnati Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Iceland Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony, the New World Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Oregon Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Saint Louis Symphony, the San Diego Symphony, the San Francisco Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, and the Toronto Symphony. He has taken part in multiple world and U.S. premiere performances of orchestral and chamber works by several composers including John Adams, Thomas Adés, Louis Andriessen, Unsuk Chin, Peter Eötvös, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Bernd Alois Zimmermann. Additionally, he directly collaborated with John Adams on the composition of the featured cimbalom parts for The Gospel According to the Other Mary and Scheherazade.2.
Chester can be heard on the Cantaloupe, Capcom, Deutsche Grammophon, DisneyNature, Interscope, Naxos, Nonesuch, Seattle Symphony Media, and Ubisoft labels. Chester is also Head of Percussion Studies at Cleveland State University. He and his lovely wife, violinist Rachel Englander, reside in Cleveland, OH and are proud parents to their adorable daughters Charlotte and Alice.