Timothy Dusenbury

Born in Charleston, South Carolina, Timothy Dusenbury grew up in Laurel, Maryland. Homeschooled through high school, he took the opportunity to pursue a variety of activities in addition to his studies, swimming and backpacking a great deal, holding a variety of part-time jobs, and pursuing his interest in music performance, history, and theory. At seventeen, he was accepted as a private student of Gwyn Roberts (recorder) at the Peabody Conservatory, in Baltimore, where he performed and recorded with several early music ensembles. During this time he also studied privately at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC, with Dr. Chiara Selby (piano) and Dr. Anthony Stark (composition). 

Upon graduating from high school, he studied music composition for one year at Catholic University, and in the fall of 2002 he left Catholic and took a position teaching junior high and high school music at Trinity School at Meadow View in northern Virginia. Because Trinity was a young school, he was given a great deal of freedom to shape and install a working music curriculum. During his years there he authored a textbook on basic theory and solfège, and served as director for a number of instrumental and vocal ensembles. While all of these experiences were very educational and enjoyable, the primary insights he took from Trinity were his own love of the classroom environment and the work of teaching. 

In 2005 he moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, to complete his undergraduate degree in composition with Howard Frazin at the Longy School of Music. The eccentric, somewhat desultory nature of his formal studies has offered, and frequently necessitated, his working at a variety of trades, such as bookseller, mover, baker, manager, kitchen staff, construction worker, swim coach, and most recently an emergency room orderly at the Medical College of Virginia. 

In the past five years his music has been performed throughout the United States in such venues as the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Gasson Hall (Boston College), Pickman Hall (Longy), and the John Paul II Cultural Center (Washington, DC). His Sonata for violin and piano was featured on the final concert of Longy’s SeptemberFEST concert series in 2006. He has had two choral works published by Canon Press, and has received commissions and performances from numerous choral and instrumental ensembles. In 2006 his music appeared in two independent films as part of a collaboration with filmmaker Jonathan Demaree. He is currently working on a piece for fellow Creativity Foundation Legacy Award winner, harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani.