Tim began playing the trombone at age nine because his parents didn’t want him to play the trumpet. He fell in love with the trombone when his band director gave him a cassette tape of Jack Teagarden playing Stars Fell on Alabama. Tim grew up in the Napa Valley which seems really romantic, but is actually pretty boring for a high school kid which led to him practicing a lot.
Before graduating from the Eastman School of Music, Tim began recording and touring with alto saxophonist, Steve Coleman. Shortly after, he moved to New York where he lived for seventeen years. Tim loves just about every genre of music, and in New York, he was lucky to have played, toured and/or recorded with an eclectic mix of artists including the Metropolitan Opera, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, Dafnis Prieto, Steve Lehman, Miguel Zenon, Jay-Z, Barbara Streisand, Sufjan Stevens, and the National. He was also a pit musician for many, many Broadway productions. He was a member of the Atlantic Brass Quintet for fifteen years, and recently toured with the American Brass Quintet performing the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s breathtaking Book of Brass.
In 2016, Tim and his family moved to Appleton, Wisconsin where he is the trombone professor at Lawrence University. He feels blessed to work with some of the most talented, smartest young musicians he has met. He still travels back to New York and around the country to make music with friends and musical heroes.
He is honored to have studied with some amazing teachers including Bob Graf, Doug Bates, John Marcellus, Per Brevig and John Rojak.
When not playing the trombone, Tim loves camping in the redwoods, knitting, making compost, cooking, and doing all of the above with his wife and two sons.
