Tim

Timothy ODwyer, is a saxophonist, composer and educator currently Head of the School of Contemporary Music at LASALLE College of the Arts in Singapore. Timothy’s career has constantly stretched across borders of genre, performance practice and art forms. Trained as a jazz musician at the Victorian College of the Arts (Melbourne, Australia) graduating with a degree in Performance in 1993 he furthered his studies with a tuition grant from the Australian Council for the Arts in 1995 studying with composer Richard Barrett in Amsterdam and visionary saxophonist/ improviser Evan Parker in London.

Following his studies Timothy returned to Melbourne and joined the underground punk-jazz band ‘bucketrider’ who went on to release four acclaimed cds and countless shows from their uncompromising original material (composed by ODwyer in collaboration with David Brown bass/ guitar, Sean Baxter drums, Adam Simmons saxes and James Wilkinson Trombone) to performing the works of Sun Ra and the late-period of John Coltrane to collaborations with the contemporary classical group LIBRA, the contemporary dance group danceworks and performing with international rock groups like Zena Geva (Jap) and Sonic Youth (US).

Timothy has been a member of Australia’s leading Contemporary Classical Ensemble Elision since 1994 as a saxophonist, composer of new works and as an improviser in collaborative projects that cover opera, installation and the concert hall. Timothy has premiered many new works for saxophone in this group by composers Liza Lim, John Rogers, Richard Barrett, Chaya Chernowin, Volker Heyn and Maurizio Pisati Performing in venues as diverse as the Sydney Opera House, all the major arts festivals in Australia including Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney to The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (UK), The Ultima Festival in Oslo, Zurich’s Theatre Spectacle, Berlin’s Hebbel Theatre; Tokyo’s Saitama Concert Hall and Radio Bremen (Germ).

In 2005 Timothy formed his free jazz trio the Tim ODwyer Trio with Darren Moore (drums) and Clayton Thomas (Bass). The group has toured the East Coast of Australia three times, toured Japan (2010), released 2 albums and have also played at Mosaic Festival in Singapore, the Brave Festival Poland, and the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland (2010). They have performed at all the major jazz festivals in Australia including Jazz:Now in Sydney (Opera House), The Wangaratta Festival of Jazz and appeared twice at the Melbourne Jazz Festival- most recently in June 2011. Their latest cd falconry is available now through www.timodwyer.com.

As an improviser/ composer/ conceptual artist and soloist Timothy has been privileged to create work with an extremely broad cross section of sound makers/ dancers/ painters/ poets and sculptures including: Australian Indigenous artist Lilla Watson; British designer Lucy Orta; Japanese improvisers Tetuzi Akiyama and KK Null; Italian composer and installation artist Mauricio Pisati; Australian installation artist Domenico DeClario; Melbourne physical theatre company Desoxy Theatre; Singapore director Tzu Nyen Ho; improvisers’ Robin Fox, John Butcher, David Brown, Greg Kingston and Newton Armstrong; Japanese sculpture Katsushige Nakahashi; Australian poet Alison Croggan; Japanese composer Chikako Morishita; the Australian Clocked Out Duo……

Timothy has performed and recorded with some of the most prominent jazz musicians in Australia and internationally including Bobby Previte (NYC), Odeon Pope (NYC), Eric Boeren/ Michael Vatcher/ Willem DeJoode (Netherlands) Scott Tinkler, Andrea Keller (recording a cd of Bela Bartok material that went on to win the Bell and Aria awards for best jazz album 2002), Paul Grabowsky, Tony Buck, Chris Abrahams and Mike Nock to name a few.

Timothy is currently a PhD candidature at Queensland University of Technology. His research area is improvisation and identity.