David Timm

David Timm, born in Waren (Müritz) in 1969, was a member and 1st prefect of the Leipzig Thomanerchor. After studying church music at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig with, among others, Hannes Kästner, Arvid Gast (organ), and Volker Bräutigam (improvisation), and completing his A exams in 1995, he completed master class studies in piano in Leipzig with Markus Tomas.

A residency with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the Mozarteum Salzburg followed in 1996/97, where he graduated with honors in 1999. Between 1998 and 2002 he taught choral and orchestral conducting at the Protestant University of Sacred Music Halle. Since 1998 he has been a teacher of liturgical organ playing at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig.

His many awards include first prize at the Weimar Piano Improvisation Competition in 1991 and first prizes at the I. Johann Sebastian Bach Improvisation Competition in Weimar and the V. International Organ Improvisation Competition in Schwäbisch Gmünd in 1997 as well as the Leipzig Jazz-Nachwuchs-Stipendium (Jazz Young Talent Scholarship) in 1998 together with Reiko Brockelt, saxophone. In 2008 he received the Mozart Prize of the Saxon Mozart Society. In 2005 he was a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Association in Leipzig, of which he has been an honorary member since 2008.

He is a founding member and chairman of the Leipzig-based Richard-Wagner-Gesellschaft. From 1999-2006 David Timm was musical director of the Leipzig Vocal Ensemble as successor to Georg Christoph Biller. In 1999 he founded the LeipzigBigband together with Frank Nowicky. Since 2005 he has been Leipzig University Music Director and director of the Leipzig University Choir.

David Timm has performed in numerous European countries as well as in the USA, Japan, Russia, Central Asia and Iraq; he has given solo performances with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the New Bach Collegium Musicum, among others, and has been a guest at international festivals such as the Leipzig Bach Festival, the MDR Music Summer, the Tallinn Organ Festival and the Appenzell Bach Days.

His busy musical schedule includes radio productions, CD releases and successful activities as an arranger for the Mendelssohn Orchestra Leipzig, the LeipzigBigband, Bobby McFerrin, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and Mari Boine. As a guest conductor he has worked with the Handel Festival Orchestra Halle/Saale, the Tokyo Oratorio Society, the Morioka Bach Cantata Society as well as the MDR Symphony Orchestra and the MDR Radio Choir, among others.

He was artistic director of the Reger in Leipzig project team, which prepared the Max Reger Festival 2016 on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death. For the winter semester 2017/18 he was appointed honorary professor at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig.

In September 2020, he was awarded the Johann Walter Plaque of the Saxon Music Council. Since November 2020, he has been Permanent Principal Guest Conductor of the Saxon Wind Philharmonic Orchestra.

Photo: Gert Mothes