10 Questions With Tim, Maestro of Orchestra Iowa

Originally from Dawson Creek, British Columbia. Born in Canada. Now he's a naturalized citizen btw. (Although I don't think he knows Dawson, Joey, Jen, Pacey...) He's got a wife, sister, and Mom and Dad.  Tim came to Cedar Rapids for the job 10 years ago, as there was the chance to grow an Orchestra in bad shape. He came to us from Kansas City, Missouri.  Although he said in the radio interview that he was 13 at the time, that's not completely true...

Tim is a pianist by trade, with his Undergrad degree as a Piano Performance Major.  He changed into becoming a maestro because he simply hated practicing believe it or not. Honest truth complete with uproaring laughter.  By the way, Tim is also a composer, and estimates he's written and arranged about 25-30 pieces. Many of his pieces are Christmas pieces, written normally for a specific reason, like to help fill a need at an upcoming show. As such, he has been able to perform all of them at some time or another. You've probably heard one or two if you've ever been to the annual Holiday Spectacular show.

After some thought, "70's Disco".  Guilty pleasure, right? Specific songs include "Love to Love You Baby" (the long version) and really anything by Barry White.

His wife is an avid bird watcher, so he spends much of his of time doing that all around the globe.  He really enjoyed visiting the Arctic Circle this past summer, being just 900 miles short of the North Pole. While he wouldn't recommend a repeat, he admits it was "really cool." (No pun intended, I don't believe.)

He answered very quickly. "A physicist. I has a moment in High School where I had to choose whether I was going to be a musician or pursue studies in Physics."

"Depends on the temperature. Beer during the summer. Wine during the winter." As for red vs. white, he says red. "That's the only color that exists."

"Saving this Orchestra. Even before the flood, we were a distressed organization, and the flood itself was almost lights out for the organization.Being able to survive that, and to thrive because of it, I'm very proud of that."

"That's a hard one, but, well, the end of the season. Partly because it's the end of the season. But, every once in a while there's a rare piece that comes along, that you don't get a chance to do very often, either because it's not performed very often, or the resources to do it are very high, so you have to do year's of planning to make sure it fits into your budget.  So the last concert this year features a Strauss piece, a big swashbuckling piece, but it requires a massive orchestra.And it's also one that measures how good the Orchestra really is. So it's a treat for them, for me, and for the audience... and is a real measuring stick of how the Orchestra has progressed in the 10 years I've been here." That concert is titled "A Hero's Life".

From his entire career, his favorite artist to work with was Wynonna Judd. "Great singer, great professional." Her professionalism, voice, and business savvy blew him away and impressed him. He added he would love one day to work with Justin Timberlake for much the same reasons. Although he doesn't have a symphonic program "yet", Tim would love to make one for him. He's "another person who's a consummate professional as a singer, artist, producer, comic, and dancer.  I get a kick out of people who have multiple talents."

He has a lucky charm he wears every concert. He got it when he was still at University. It's a Star Trek communicator pin. "Whether I'm wearing a suit, or tails, or a tux, underneath that is that Star Trek communicator pin, because if things go wrong, I always have a quick escape."