Timothy Olsen - The German Muse: Organ Music, The Flentrop Organ, Salem College, North Carolina (2016)

Timothy Olsen became in 2009 the Kenan Professor of Organ at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and Associate Professor of Organ at Salem College in Winston- Salem, North Carolina. Dr. Olsen also serves as Cantor at Augsburg Lutheran Church in Winston-Salem, where he oversees the music program: directing the adult choirs, playing for services, and directing a music staff which includes a Director of Youth Music and Handbells and a music intern. Previously, he was for four years the Wanda L. Bass Chair of Organ at Oklahoma City University, and has also taught at Ithaca College, Bing­hamton University, and Cornell University.

Concertizing frequently, Timothy Olsen is the first-prize winner of the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (2002) sponsored by the American Guild of Organists and was a finalist in several other competitions, including the Norddeutscher Rundfunk Schnitger Competition (Germany), the Poister National Organ Competition, and the John Rodland Memorial Organ Competition. Featured as organ soloist with orchestras, he also performs collabora­tively in organ/trumpet recitals with Judith Saxton; organ duo recitals with Nicole Keller; and as organist for choral works including Maurice Duruflé’s Requiem and Messe Cum Jubilo, Théodore Dubois’s The Seven Last Words of Christ, and Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem.

Dr. Olsen presents masterclasses and workshops for universities, churches, and chapters of the American Guild of Organists, plays recitals at AGO Conventions, and performs solo organ recitals internationally. His earlier CD of widely ranging repertoire appears on the Naxos label, and his peformances have been featured on the Pipedreams radio program.

A native of Frost, Minnesota, Dr. Olsen began organ study at age 13 with Sandra Krum­holz of Fair­mont, Minnesota, and continued with Peter Nygaard at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, receiving a Bachelor of Music degree in 1997. A student of David Higgs at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, he earned the Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music Degrees in Organ Performance and Literature as well as a Master of Arts Degree in Music Theory Pedagogy. He served as David Higgs’ teaching assistant, a teaching assistant in the theory department, and on the faculty of the Eastman Community Education Division.