Biographical details

Tim was born in Northallerton, North Yorkshire in 1959, subsequently becoming a Chorister at York Minster under Dr Francis Jackson, Choral Conducting study was under the direction of the late John Coates.

He is an award winning composer with many pieces available through a wide range of publishing houses both in the UK and abroad, including Germany, Australia and the USA. These range from beginner woodwind pieces to large scale orchestral and choral works.
Because Tim’s music is accessible to both performers and listeners, and reviews in the Music press have always been good, a steady stream of performances has been built up and these have been in the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Norway, Hungary and Ireland.

Tim Knight conducting the Heritage Singers on Stattan Island, New York in 2003

Amongst a long list of notable performers have been Organists Dr. Francis Jackson, Dr. Simon Lindley, and Dr. Tim Rishton, Choirs including Wakefield Festival Chorus, Cheltenham Choral Society, Bel Canto Singers of Fredericton (Canada), the award winning Verse and Chorus youth choir in Harrogate, The University of La Crosse (Wisconsin), The Heritage Singers and Vocalis, together with Orchestras including the Czech Philharmonic, Hessle Sinfonia, Ilkley Sinfonietta, Portsmouth New Music Orchestra, Isle of Axholme Orchestra. Performance venues have ranged from Village Churches to most major Northern Cathedrals and in Ireland at the Cork International Organ festival; in Holland at the reopening of the concert hall in Leiden, and in the USA from Concert Venues to St Thomas’s Fifth Avenue New York and St Paul’s Cathedral, Boston.

In 2007 The Orchestral piece Elegy for an English Summer was released on the award winning ‘Masterworks of a new era ‘CD series with Robert Winstin and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. This has subsequently been broadcast on various US and Canadian Radio stations. A CD of Tim’s Choral works was released on the NCS label and this too is having Broadcasts in the USA and Canada. The 2007 World Music Foundation Composer’s Competition gave Tim a special mention and he was a finalist in the 2006/7/8 and 2009 UK’s largest Composers Competition.

As a Conductor, he has an unusually large knowledge of the repertoire and is known for imaginative programming in both concerts and his many workshops.

He is founder director of the Heritage Singers, an Anglican Music Chamber Choir that has toured America, Holland, Hungary and Norway as well as appearing at most Northern Cathedrals and the Ryedale, Swaledale and Northern Aldborough Festivals, This choir has also made 5 CDs covering a wide range of music.
He also has long associations with many other Northern choirs including the Grassington Singers, Thornton Vocal Union and Burnley Municipal Choir and has just finished a 7 year term with Vocalis (a Harrogate based chamber choir). This year, he has formed the Heritage Masterworks Chorale, a concert choir performing unusual and often neglected repertoire in fine locations.

Tim believes passionately in the future of Choral Music and is much in demand for his Choir Survival workshops which have taken place around the UK. He is the author of the best selling book on the subject of Choir Marketing and Promotion. Tim is also the Principal of the Yorkshire College of Music and Drama in Leeds.

Current Projects

Current projects include a Commissioned Requiem for an American university, leading Choral Holidays in Tuscany and a busy schedule of Choral engagements at a wide range of venues including Newcastle Cathedral in the summer of 2010.

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