Draft:Tim Knight

Tim Knight (born 10. September 1959 in Northallerton) is an English composer, choir director and music educator.

Knight was a chorister at York Minster from 1969 to 1973 under the direction of Francis Jackson and studied choral conducting with John Coates. He is the founding director of the Yorkshire based Heritage Singers, a robed chamber choir with which has performed in the USA, Holland, and Norway, and is the current musical director of The Leeds Male Voice Choir and the organist at St Stephen's Church, Kirkstall. He took part in the Ryedale, Swaledale and Northern Aldborough Festivals and has recorded five CDs. He has also worked with the Grassington Singers, the Thornton Vocal Union, the Burnley Municipal Choir and the chamber choir Vocalis and founded the touring concert choir Masterworks Chorale. He was the choirmaster of St Bartholomew's Church in Armley, was the principal of the Yorkshire College of Music and Drama until 2023 and was the director of the York Rose Singers. He launched Studio 275 for adults wanting tuition in composition, theory and singing in 2024. He also runs a number of "Come and Sing" weekends or days at various locations across Northern England.

Knight's compositions have appeared in Great Britain, the USA, Germany and Austria and include works from teaching pieces for wind ensembles to large orchestral and choral works. They have been performed at Cork International Organ Festival, the reopening of the Leiden Concert Hall and at St. Paul's Cathedral in Boston; and played by musicians and ensembles such as organists Francis Jackson, Simon Lindley and Tim Rishton, the Wakefield Festival Chorus, the Cheltenham Choral Society and the Bel Canto Singers from Fredericton, Canada, the Czech Philharmonic, the Hessle Sinfonia, the Ilkley Sinfonietta, the Portsmouth New Music Orchestra and the Isle of Axholme Orchestra. In 2003 he led the premiere of his oratorio Genesis as a guest conductor at the summer conference of the Royal Canadian College of Organists, and in 2011 the premiere of his Requiem at St. Raphael's Cathedral in Dubuque.

Knight has written three publications based on his experiences as musical director: Getting the best from your choir ; 49 Tips to your better singing voice ; and Seven Steps to More Successful Concerts

His orchestral piece Elegy for an English Summer was released in 2007 in the CD series Masterworks of a new era with the Czech Philharmonic under Robert Winston. In 2007 he was honoured with a special metion at the World Music Foundation Composers Competition, and the following year he was represented in the finals of the British Composers Competition with three pieces.

Weblinks

 * Tim Knight Music