Michael Sidney Timpson

Who is Michael Sidney Timpson?

Michael Sidney Timpson is an American composer of contemporary classical music.

Although clearly a composer of the concert art-music genre, his definitive style combines elements of European, American, and Asian musical sources. His music is written for nearly every medium, including orchestral, chamber, band, percussion, electronic, vocal, and even non-western instruments. His two most well-known and performed compositions are Chasin’ Bill for Chinese silk and bamboo ensemble and CRUSH for soprano saxophone and Chinese Guzheng.

The nature of his music is eclectic, stemming from maximalism to minimalism, modernism to postmodernism, and fluidly combines tonality and atonality.

His musical beginnings were borne out of playing baritone saxophone and bass clarinet, often manipulating the latter instrument with guitar pedals; he was also co-founder of the group Jazz on the line with fellow saxophonists Rent Romus and Dan Magay. This led to a strong interest in American improvisational forms, especially Cool Jazz, Progressive Bebop, Free Jazz, and non-commercially oriented Jazz Fusion.