 Timothy Sawyer has enjoyed an active career as a conductor, educator and professional singer after formal musical training at Bethel University (St. Paul, Minnesota), Exeter University (England), the University of Minnesota, and in doctoral-level study at the University of Iowa. He has done advanced conducting studies with Helmuth Rilling, the late Margaret Hillis, Vance George, Gregg Smith, and Sweden’s Eric Ericson, among others. In addition to extensive experience as a tenor soloist, he is a veteran chorister with several professional choirs, among them the Dale Warland Singers, the Ensemble Singers of VocalEssence of Minnesota, and the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, with which he shared in a collective Grammy Award in 2000 for the recording of Krzysztof Penderecki’s “Credo.” Since 1989, Sawyer has been a member of the music faculty at Northwestern College in St. Paul [nwc.edu] where he is director of choral activities, teaches conducting, conducts the Men’s Chorus and the critically-acclaimed Northwestern College Choir. With its motto “choral music direct from the heart” and a distinctive mission that integrates excellence in concertizing, outreach and cross-cultural ministry, the Northwestern College Choir has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Scandinavia, and in western, central and eastern Europe, including Ukraine, where it was the first American choir ever invited to perform in Kiev’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory. The Choir’s recent May 2010 international tour introduced them to new and enthusiastic audiences in Latvia, Estonia and Finland.
From 1997-2004, Sawyer served a seven-year tenure as assistant artistic director of the Minnesota Chorale, principal symphonic chorus of the Minnesota Orchestra and frequent collaborator with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. An enthusiastic and gifted teacher of conducting, Sawyer has been on the artistic staff of the conducting master classes at the University of Minnesota, Toronto Bach Festival, and is currently associate director of the Oregon Bach Festival’s conducting master class, preparing and coaching advanced conductors to work with Bach scholar and master teacher Helmuth Rilling. Sawyer is a member of the board and adjunct faculty member with Music in World Cultures, an international faith-based organization using music as a strategic tool in developing cross-cultural relationships. Increasingly in demand as a clinician for choral festivals, in recent years Sawyer has led numerous festivals throughout the United States and internationally in Ukraine, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Asia.
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