People

Timothy Blinko

Composer and Conductor

Timothy Blinko was Bliss composition scholar at the Royal College of Music, which has been central to British music in the 20th century, with composers such as Vaughan Williams, Holst, Ireland, Britten and Tippett all passing through its doors. As a postgraduate student at the Royal College, he was appointed as a Junior Professor, becoming Head of Composition and Musicianship Studies in 1994. He also taught as a Senior Lecturer at London University's Birkbeck College before joining the Music Department at Hertfordshire in the role of Associate Head of Music, which was created for him.

Having been appointed as a Visiting Professor for the State University of New York, he also helped establish the Musical Theatre Course at the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts, described by Cameron Macintosh as ‘the best musical-theatre course in the world.’ He has been active as a conductor, including conducting masterclasses at Cambridge University since 1999, and from 2003-6, as Director of Ealing Abbey Choir, one of the finest Catholic choirs in the UK. In January 2006 he was appointed Head of Music at the University of Hertfordshire (one of the biggest Music Departments in the UK), and in October 2006, he was appointed Professor of Music.

He has received many awards from the Arts Council, PRS and the RVW Trust as well as five prizes for composition; he has many published works, CD recordings and has received broadcasts in the UK on BBC 1, Channel 4, Radio 3 and Radio 4, alongside international performances, recordings and broadcasts. His three-movement saxophone quartet, Sculptures, has been played by every leading quartet in the world and recorded by five. He has been invited to judge the British Composer Awards (BBC Radio 3, British Academy) for the past 3 years (the composition equivalent of the Booker Prize), and he works for the UK’s QAA as a Specialist Reviewer, as well as representing the University as a corporate member of the ISM.

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UHR003: Reflection - Ealing Abbey Choir conducted by Timothy Blinko
Spectrum Live