Timothy Shantz
Conductor
Timothy Shantz is a conductor, collaborator, tenor soloist, teacher and life-long dreamer. He is the Founder and Artistic Director of Calgary’s professional choir, Luminous Voices, and the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Alberta’s Department of Music. The Calgary Philharmonic Chorus and Spiritus Chamber Choir flourished during his tenure. Kenneth DeLong of the Calgary Herald wrote, “It is hard to believe that it has been a full decade since Timothy Shantz became the chorus master of the CPO Chorus. During this decade, Shantz, always energetic and full of initiative, has transformed the choral life of the city.” As a conductor, he is recognized for the breadth of his work with choirs, from early music to contemporary, virtuoso unaccompanied to choral-orchestral works. Both Luminous Voices and Spiritus Chamber Choir earned national choral awards, including Outstanding Choral Recording (Luminous Voices 2018 & 2016), and the Healey Willan Grand Prize for Choirs (Spiritus Chamber Choir 2017 & 2013). In 2021, he was honoured to receive the Richard S. Eaton Award of Distinction from Choir Alberta in recognition of exemplary service to choral music in the province of Alberta.
Shantz has several recordings including Artem Vedel: Twelve Sacred Choral Concerti & Divine Liturgy St. John Chrysostom (2021), one of Ukraine’s finest 18th Century composers. Sea Dreams (2020), featuring music by Peter-Anthony Togni, was nominated for a 2021 JUNO Award. Previous recordings include Zachary Wadsworth’s The Far West (2016), of which Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote “beautifully sung, as everything here is, by the aptly named Luminous Voices,” and Mendelssohn’s Te Deum (2015) with Luminous Voices, as well as James MacMillan's Seven Last Words (2014), All the Stars Looked Down (2012) and of Stars and Solitude (2010) with Spiritus Chamber Choir.
Timothy holds a Doctor of Music degree in Choral Conducting from Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. His research involved extensive interviews with Sir James MacMillan and an analysis of his unaccompanied choral work Sun-Dogs. He is also a graduate of the University of Alberta's Choral Conducting program (M.Mus 1999), and earned a degree in piano performance from Wilfrid Laurier University (Hon. B.Mus 1995). Conducting instructors include John Poole, Jan Harrington, Carmen Tellez, Frieder Bernius, Jon Washburn, Leonard Ratzlaff, Debra Cairns and Noel Edison.
