Timothy Deighton, Viola
Tim Deighton is professor of viola at Penn State University, and is grateful to have the opportunity to pursue a wide variety of performing opportunities, from chamber music and solo appearances to orchestral work.
Chamber music collaborations include those with the American String Quartet and the New Zealand String Quartet, and with musicians outside the traditional classical field such as the Mäori (Taongo Puoro) instrumentalist Richard Nunns. He is in demand as a chamber musician and collaborates regularly with principals of many of the top orchestras, professors at major conservatories, and international prize-winners. He performs regularly with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, with whom he has recorded several CDs and toured Europe twice. He worked regularly with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra for about fifteen years, touring Asia with the orchestra on three occasions. He is a former member and guest principal violist of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and he was the featured recitalist for the prestigious annual William Primrose Memorial Concert at Brigham Young University. In 2016 he received the American Viola Society’s Maurice W. Riley Award in recognition of outstanding contributions to studio teaching and enduring commitment to expanding the viola repertoire through commissions, performance, and recording. He has served as an adjudicator on several occasions, including the 2018 Johansen International Competition.
Having long held a fascination for new music, he has performed premieres of more than fifty works for viola, most of which were commissioned by or written for him. His solo CD, Viola Aotearoa, featuring music for viola by New Zealand composers, was released on the Atoll label, and his playing was described in The Strad as “brilliant and differentiated.” The contemporary music duo, with saxophonist Carrie Koffman, has commissioned and premiered many new works, and their CD, Dialogues, received excellent reviews.
A committed teacher, Deighton has received several teaching awards, including the Pennsylvania-Delaware String Teachers Association’s String Teacher of the Year, and the Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Arts and Architecture at Penn State. His former students hold positions in professional orchestras and on the faculties of music schools in the United States and overseas. Recent teaching engagements have included master classes throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, Australasia, and Asia. His articles have been published in most of the major string journals. He is a former board member of the New York Viola Society and the American Viola Society. Deighton has appeared at five International Viola Congresses as recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestra, and as master class presenter and panelist.