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Timothy Bach

(He/Him)
Timothy Bach headshot

Contact

Office 605

tlb@sfcm.edu
415-503-6249

Courses Taught

Applied Lessons

Collaborative Piano

Vocal Literature

Keyboard Literature

Education

DMA, Piano/Accompanying, University of Southern California

BA, Stanford University

Q&A

What is your hometown?

Pittsburgh, PA

Who were your major teachers?

Gwendolyn Koldofsky, Brooks Smith, and Adolph Baller.

What question do you wish students would ask sooner rather than later?

The core question of how do I learn how to learn?

What was the defining moment when you decided to pursue music as a career?

Playing chamber music on cello and piano at age 9, and then performing as soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony two years later.

What was a turning point in your career?

Meeting Gwendolyn Koldofsky and finding kindred souls in the accompanying world.

What is your daily practice routine?

To never practice routinely. I always look to practice efficiently, with creativity and an eye to problem solving.

If you could play only three composers for the rest of your life, who would they be?

Bach, Mozart, and Schubert - the inexplicable ones.

What are your most important collaborations?

Artists Elena Obratsova, Hai-ye Ni, and Jennifer Koh in recital, amongst others.

What recordings can we hear you on?

Michaels Edwards/Timothy Bach, Clarinet Sonatas, Crystal
Brahms Violin Sonatas, Hanwon Choi, violin, Timothy Bach, piano

What is your unrealized project?

One is to restore tape recordings of Lotte Lehmann's Pasadena master classes from the 1950s, and then analyze and share them with students.

Biography

Timothy Bach is the Chair of the Collaborative Piano Department at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He teaches Collaborative Piano, Vocal Literature, Keyboard Literature, and Chamber Music. He holds a BA from Stanford University and a DMA of Piano/Accompanying from the University of Southern California. Important collaborations include Artists Elena Obratsova, Hai-ye Ni, and Jennifer Koh.