photo credit: Daniel R. Welch
TIMOTHY ROY (b. 1987, Nederland, Texas) composes music steeped in imagery and allusion, which often seeks to elicit a sense of time, place, and feeling. With an output that encompasses works for acoustic instruments, electronic sound, and the intersection of these two realms, Roy endeavors to explore a broad range of mediums and contexts in which his work might be experienced.
Recent projects reflect an ever-growing engagement with visual art. In 2017, Roy fulfilled a commission from Musiqa New Music Collective for a work to be performed alongside a solo exhibition by Paul Ramírez Jonas at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. A work for live electronics driven by audience participation, The Many Become One was created as a compliment to Ramírez Jonas’s unique aesthetic. In Southern Specter for amplified chamber ensemble and video, produced in close collaboration with filmmaker Richard Johnson, music and visual share equal footing.
Roy’s music has been heard in concerts in Canada, Germany, Taiwan, Japan, the United Kingdom, Chile, Cyprus, Croatia, Slovenia, and across the United States, with performances by Ensemble Signal, the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, Loop38, violinist Sayako Kusaka, and pianists Keith Kirchoff, Stacey Barelos, and Xenia Pestova. His music has been presented at such venues and events as the National Theater of Taipei, Music Biennale Zagreb, Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST), Bowling Green New Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium, Sweet Thunder Music Festival, International Computer Music Festival (ICMC), Center of Cypriot Composers, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) National Conference, Electronic Music Midwest, and the International Electroacoustic Music Festival of Chile, “Ai-maako.”
Roy served as Composer+Intern with Musiqa New Music Collective during the 2016–2017 season, completing two commissions for the organization. Other commissions have come from Musiqa New Music Collective, the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, Kansas City Arts & Music Alliance (KcEMA), the SMU Catholic Campus Ministry & Diocese of Dallas, and the Neiman Marcus Corporation.
Roy has received awards and recognition from ASCAP/SEAMUS (Finalist, 2018), New Music on the Bayou (2021 Black Bayou Composition Award & Commission), Sigma Alpha Iota Inter-American Music Awards (Winner, 2015), the International Competition of Electroacoustic Composition “Prix Destellos” (First Prize, 2013; Honorary Mention, 2019), Musicacoustica-Beijing Composition Competition (First Prize student mixed media category, 2012), the First International Jean Sibelius Composition Competition (Finalist, 2015), and the International Composition Competition “Città di Udine” (Finalist, 2012), and the I-Park Foundation (Resident Artist, 2018).
Roy’s work Behind the Back for pipa and electronics appears on Crossings: Contemporary Music for Chinese Instruments, The Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra’s debut album with Albany Records. His Salve Regina for chorus was recently added to the Edition Peters catalogue.
Roy frequently collaborates with musicians to present works for instruments and electronics. In July 2021, he worked closely with Steven Takasugi to produce two portrait concerts of his works for amplified instruments and electronics during the Twin Cities New Music Festival. Other notable collaborations include performance of electronics for Kate Soper's Voices from the Killing Jar and for the North American premiere of Unsuke Chin's Double Bind? for violin and 8-channel audio, using proprietary motion-tracking sensors and software from Ircam.
He was a visiting faculty member at Western Michigan University during the 2018–2019 academic year, where he taught private composition lessons, undergraduate theory, and graduate seminars in musical form and the aesthetics of electroacoustic music. He previously taught at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas.
Roy and his wife currently reside in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he is choirmaster and organist at the Church of Saint Peter Roman Catholic Community. He is completing a doctorate at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music; there, he taught electronic music, theory, and composition, and served for three years as the Teaching Fellow for the Rice Electroacoustic Music Labs (REMLABS). His primary teachers have been Pierre Jalbert, Kurt Stallmann, Karim Al-Zand, James Mobberley, Chen Yi, and Paul Rudy.
Recent projects reflect an ever-growing engagement with visual art. In 2017, Roy fulfilled a commission from Musiqa New Music Collective for a work to be performed alongside a solo exhibition by Paul Ramírez Jonas at the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston. A work for live electronics driven by audience participation, The Many Become One was created as a compliment to Ramírez Jonas’s unique aesthetic. In Southern Specter for amplified chamber ensemble and video, produced in close collaboration with filmmaker Richard Johnson, music and visual share equal footing.
Roy’s music has been heard in concerts in Canada, Germany, Taiwan, Japan, the United Kingdom, Chile, Cyprus, Croatia, Slovenia, and across the United States, with performances by Ensemble Signal, the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, Loop38, violinist Sayako Kusaka, and pianists Keith Kirchoff, Stacey Barelos, and Xenia Pestova. His music has been presented at such venues and events as the National Theater of Taipei, Music Biennale Zagreb, Birmingham ElectroAcoustic Sound Theatre (BEAST), Bowling Green New Music Festival, June in Buffalo, Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium, Sweet Thunder Music Festival, International Computer Music Festival (ICMC), Center of Cypriot Composers, Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) National Conference, Electronic Music Midwest, and the International Electroacoustic Music Festival of Chile, “Ai-maako.”
Roy served as Composer+Intern with Musiqa New Music Collective during the 2016–2017 season, completing two commissions for the organization. Other commissions have come from Musiqa New Music Collective, the Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra, Kansas City Arts & Music Alliance (KcEMA), the SMU Catholic Campus Ministry & Diocese of Dallas, and the Neiman Marcus Corporation.
Roy has received awards and recognition from ASCAP/SEAMUS (Finalist, 2018), New Music on the Bayou (2021 Black Bayou Composition Award & Commission), Sigma Alpha Iota Inter-American Music Awards (Winner, 2015), the International Competition of Electroacoustic Composition “Prix Destellos” (First Prize, 2013; Honorary Mention, 2019), Musicacoustica-Beijing Composition Competition (First Prize student mixed media category, 2012), the First International Jean Sibelius Composition Competition (Finalist, 2015), and the International Composition Competition “Città di Udine” (Finalist, 2012), and the I-Park Foundation (Resident Artist, 2018).
Roy’s work Behind the Back for pipa and electronics appears on Crossings: Contemporary Music for Chinese Instruments, The Little Giant Chinese Chamber Orchestra’s debut album with Albany Records. His Salve Regina for chorus was recently added to the Edition Peters catalogue.
Roy frequently collaborates with musicians to present works for instruments and electronics. In July 2021, he worked closely with Steven Takasugi to produce two portrait concerts of his works for amplified instruments and electronics during the Twin Cities New Music Festival. Other notable collaborations include performance of electronics for Kate Soper's Voices from the Killing Jar and for the North American premiere of Unsuke Chin's Double Bind? for violin and 8-channel audio, using proprietary motion-tracking sensors and software from Ircam.
He was a visiting faculty member at Western Michigan University during the 2018–2019 academic year, where he taught private composition lessons, undergraduate theory, and graduate seminars in musical form and the aesthetics of electroacoustic music. He previously taught at MidAmerica Nazarene University in Olathe, Kansas.
Roy and his wife currently reside in Saint Paul, Minnesota, where he is choirmaster and organist at the Church of Saint Peter Roman Catholic Community. He is completing a doctorate at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music; there, he taught electronic music, theory, and composition, and served for three years as the Teaching Fellow for the Rice Electroacoustic Music Labs (REMLABS). His primary teachers have been Pierre Jalbert, Kurt Stallmann, Karim Al-Zand, James Mobberley, Chen Yi, and Paul Rudy.