About Tim Sawyer
Timothy Sawyer is a widely known conductor and educator, and a veteran of many professional choirs, among them the Dale Warland Singers, the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, and the Ensemble Singers of VocalEssence. Sawyer's conducting teachers include Helmuth Rilling, Eric Ericson, Gregg Smith, Vance George, Margaret Hillis, and Dale Warland. He has conducted choral performances throughout the United States, Europe and South America, and for state and divisional conventions of the American Choral Directors Association. Active as a festival conductor, he has led all-state and honor choirs throughout the United States, and internationally in Hungary, the Czech Republic and Ukraine. From 1997–2004, he was associate conductor of the Minnesota Chorale, preparing choruses for performance with the Minnesota Orchestra and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and served as choir director at The Colonial Church of Edina from 1995-2010. In 2004, he was named Artistic Director and Conductor of the Two Rivers Chorale, a St. Paul-based chorus.
Sawyer is cited in Who's Who in America, Who's Who Among America's Teachers, shared in a Grammy Award in 2000 with the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus. From 1998 to 2002, he served on the board and planning committee for the Sixth World Choral Symposium, hosted by Minneapolis/St. Paul. For several years, he served on the artistic staff for the Toronto and Oregon Bach Festival's conducting master classes, and as an adjunct faculty member at the Christian Music Academy in Ukraine. Active as a choral clinician and festival conductor throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, Sawyer is also member of the board of Music in World Cultures, an international faith-based organization at the forefront of a growing movement dedicated to the establishment and advancement of the use of music as a strategic tool in developing cross-cultural relationships.