TimWhite

MEDIA KIT

SHORT BIO

Tim White OAM is a percussionist and educator based in Perth, Australia.

Tim is the Co-ordinator of Classical Music and Senior Lecturer in Music at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University, where he leads WAAPA's classical music and percussion programmes, directs the Defying Gravity percussion ensemble, co-ordinates all of WAAPA's classical ensembles, and supervises postgraduate students.

Tim has over thirty years full-time experience as an orchestral and solo percussionist. He was Principal Percussionist of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra for 28 years, has also been Principal Percussionist of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with all ten of Australia’s professional symphony and theatre orchestras.

He has performed as a concerto soloist with professional orchestras in Australia and Germany, presented numerous Australian and world premieres of new works, and performed solo for the Festival of Perth.

Tim was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2021 for his services to music. He holds two Masters degrees in music performance, and is a 2022 Fulbright Scholar and a Churchill Fellow. Tim works regularly as a guest tutor for the Australian Youth Orchestra and the Australian National Academy of Music, has directed numerous percussion festivals, and won the 2015 OLT 'Australian Award for Teaching Excellence'. Sixty-five of his percussion graduates are now enjoying full-time careers as professional musicians.

Tim’s passion is the transformative power of music: exploring how its energy and joy can reach out to nurture imaginations, touch souls, enrich lives and transform communities.

LONG BIO

Tim White OAM was born in Canberra and grew up on Christmas Island. As a teenager he fell in love with The Beatles, got hooked on classical music and took up percussion, studying in Sydney, Denmark, Germany and the USA.

Tim is the Co-ordinator of Classical Music and Senior Lecturer in Music at the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) at Edith Cowan University. He has led the percussion teaching programme at WAAPA since 1994, directs the award-winning ‘Defying Gravity’ percussion ensemble, lectures in the Art of Performance, co-ordinates all of WAAPA’s classical ensembles, and supervises postgraduate research students.

Tim was Principal Percussionist of the West Australian Symphony Orchestra for 28 years, before moving fulltime to WAAPA in 2013. He was also Principal Percussionist of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra in 1984/85, and has performed with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Queensland Symphony Orchestra, Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra, Orchestra Victoria and Australian Chamber Orchestra. Tim has toured Europe with the Australian Youth Orchestra, toured Germany as a soloist with the Hofer Symphoniker, performed solo for the Festival of Perth, and presented numerous percussion concerti as a soloist with the WASO and TSO. He presented the German and Australian premieres of Per Norgard’s ‘Percussion Concerto’ as well as the WA premieres of concertos by Richard Mills, Paul Creston and Darius Milhaud.

Tim was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2021 for his services to music. He holds two Masters degrees in music performance, is a 2022 Fulbright Scholar and a Churchill Fellow, and held a German Government DAAD Scholarship from 1991-93. He works regularly as a guest tutor for the Australian Youth Orchestra and the Australian National Academy of Music, has directed numerous percussion festivals, and won the 2015 OLT 'Australian Award for Teaching Excellence’. Sixty-five of his percussion graduates are now enjoying full-time careers as professional musicians.

Tim has performed with many of the world’s leading artists, including Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Ray Charles, Dame Joan Sutherland, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Charles Dutoit, James Galway, Sumi Jo, Midori, Bryn Terfel, Joshua Bell, Nigel Kennedy, John Williams, Ben Folds, Chick Corea, Tim Minchin, Jon Lord, Glen Campbell, Dionne Warwick and John Farnham.

Tim’s passion is the transformative power of music: exploring how its beauty and joy can reach out to touch souls, nurture imaginations, enrich lives and transform communities.

In 2014 Tim won ECU’s 'Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching', and in 2015 he won the Australian Awards for University Teaching’s 'Award for Teaching Excellence'.

DEFYING GRAVITY

WAAPA’s award-winning Defying Gravity percussion ensemble creates a new world of sound - where exotic timbres, sparkling rhythms and seductive melodies mix with an astonishing array of percussion instruments from around the globe. Formed in 1987 and directed by Tim White, Defying Gravity now celebrates 35 years at the forefront of percussion in Australia: over 550 concerts, more than 120 world premieres, four national tours, two international tours, numerous radio and TV broadcasts, and sixty-five percussion graduates who have gone on to establish full-time careers in music. They’ve represented Australia at the Percussive Arts Society's International Convention, performed for Queen Elizabeth II, and played at venues ranging from Cottesloe Beach to outback WA. Defying Gravity is one of Australia’s most exciting, longest-established and most active new music ensembles.

PRESS REVIEWS

"Defying Gravity... played to an often wildly enthusiastic, capacity audience... Throughout the evening, I have rarely heard audience responses that were so wild – and entirely justified. This program was presented at a level that left one in no doubt that WA’s young percussionists can drum up a storm to equal anything of a similar kind anywhere across Australia. And much of this is due to the untiring efforts of Tim White, who heads WAAPA’s percussion department and, as Principal Percussionist of the WASO, leads by example." - Neville Cohn, The West Australian

"Magic is exactly what this group performs. They’re not just artists, they’re sorcerers-extraordinaire!" - Steve Spain, Harambee Magazine

"Dramatic, uncompromising and brutal... quite riveting... White's performance was a tour de force. His ovation was thoroughly deserved." - Neville Cohn, The Australian

"A percussion solo by Tim White erupted into an avalanching flow of thundering power. Absolutely breathtaking stuff." Lynn Fisher, The West Australian

"Tim White, the WASO's percussionist, played concertos on marimba and xylophone with a fire and confidence that proved him a fine soloist." - Barbara Yates Rothwell, The West Australian

"With a flourish of mallets, two of the most supple and educated wrists in the business and a feat of memory that would awe an elephant, Tim White was star of the evening at the WA Symphony Orchestra's Encounter concert. White was in frankly stunning form in an all-too-rare appearance as soloist with the orchestra. By even the most rigorous critical standards, White's account of Richard Mills' Soundscapes must be considered a tour de force, a performance as fascinating to watch as to hear... For those whose notion of percussion is beating the hell out of an assortment of drums, White's performance was revelatory. While he can build up thunderous climaxes on bongos, tomtoms, side drums and congas, he is also capable of the most subtle, ear-caressing effects. The fragile, tinsel-delicate sound which White stroked from the triangle to bring the first movement to a gentle end was a delight, as if blown away by a puff of wind. There were, too, shimmering webs of sound coaxed from the vibraphone; this was artistry of the highest order, and all the more effective for being set off by thunderous forays into very much more aggressive sound territory, pages at which White charged with the abandon of a buccaneer." - Neville Cohn, The West Australian

IMAGE GALLERY

click on a thumbnail image to see the full size.

Tim White and Defying Gravity at WAAPA: Channel 9 mini-documentary from director Daniel Litjens (2021)




Brave the Wave - students of WAAPA, 2020




Defying Gravity, directed by Tim White, performing the world premiere of Kaboom Percussion’s Moto Moto in 2014

WAAPA Percussion from Raz Media on Vimeo.

Defying Gravity, directed by Tim White, performing at WAAPA in September 2016