Since 1989, Sawyer has been a member of the music faculty at the University of Northwestern (formerly Northwestern College) in St. Paul, Minnesota [unwsp.edu/music] where he is Professor of Music and Director of Choral Activities. At UNW, he conducts both the Men’s Chorus and the critically-acclaimed Northwestern Choir, teaches conducting, and serves as artistic director of Christmas at Northwestern, an annual event attended by nearly 4,000 people. With its motto “choral music direct from the heart” and a distinctive mission that integrates excellence in concertizing, outreach and cross-cultural ministry, the Northwestern Choir has performed extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Scandinavia, the Baltic states, and throughout western, central and eastern Europe, including Ukraine, where it was the first American college choir invited to perform in Kiev’s Tchaikovsky Conservatory. The Choir has appeared twice at the American Choral Festival at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Prague’s Dvorak Hall, Dresden’s Frauenkirche and Annenkirche, and to enthusiastic capacity audiences in prestigious concert venues across Ukraine, in Latvia's Riga Dom, in Turku, Finland at the Church of the Archangel Michael and in Helsinki’s famous "Rock Church." The Choir has appeared for state and divisional ACDA, the “keynote” concert of MMEA Midwinter Clinic, and in the first ever Collegiate Choral festival sponsored by ACDA-Minnesota. In its history, the Northwestern Choir also participated in the US premiere of Wilhelm Stenhammar’s tone poem Sången with VocalEssence under Philip Brunelle, in a Bach masterclass with German conductor/Bach scholar Helmuth Rilling, and in a series of joint concerts and radio broadcasts with Nebraska’s professional choir Soli Deo Gloria Cantorum with Almeda and Jackson Berkey. Under his leadership, the Northwestern College Choir and Symphonic Band commissioned and presented the world premiere of Te Deum by the late Hungarian composer Frigyes Hidas, and in premiere performances of new works by David C. Dickau, Eric William Barnum, Linda Tutas Haugen, Peter Hamlin, John Orfe, Philip Norris, Barbara J. Rogers, Chris Owenby and David DeLyser.
From 1997-2004, Sawyer served a seven-year tenure as assistant artistic director of the Minnesota Chorale, principal symphonic chorus of the Minnesota Orchestra and frequent collaborator with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Since 2004, he has led the Two Rivers Chorale [www.tworiverschorale.org], a Minneapolis/St. Paul-based choir. An enthusiastic and gifted teacher of conducting, “the well-known conductor and much admired teacher” Sawyer has been on the artistic faculty for conducting master classes at the University of Minnesota, the Toronto and Oregon Bach Festivals, and throughout Ukraine. He is a board member and adjunct faculty member with Music in World Cultures [www.miwc.org], a faith-based organization which uses music to break down barriers and build bridges to establish cross-cultural relationships throughout eastern Europe. In recent years Sawyer has led numerous choral festivals throughout the United States, and internationally in Ukraine, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Asia.
Timothy Sawyer enjoys an active career as a conductor, educator, clinician and professional singer. With formal musical training at Bethel University (St. Paul, Minnesota), Exeter University (England), the University of Minnesota, and doctoral-level study at the University of Iowa, he has also done advanced conducting studies with Helmuth Rilling, the late Margaret Hillis, Vance George, Gregg Smith, Sweden’s Eric Ericson, and Robert Berglund, among others. In addition to extensive experience as a tenor soloist throughout the United States, as a professional chorister he is a veteran of several professional choirs, among them the Dale Warland Singers, the Ensemble Singers of VocalEssence of Minnesota, South Dakota Chorale, Omaha's SDG Cantorum, the Minnesota Beethoven Festival Chorale, Montana Chorale, and the Oregon Bach Festival Chorus, with which he shared in a collective Grammy Award in 2000 for the recording of Kryzysztof Penderecki’s Credo. He is currently a member of the paid section leader core of the Schola Cantorum at the Cathedral of St. Paul, Minnesota.