Timothy Deighton is Associate Professor of viola at Penn State University where he teaches viola, chamber music, viola literature, pedagogy, and orchestral excerpts classes, and directs the Penn State Viola Ensemble. A native of New Zealand, he received a bachelor of music and first class honours degree from Victoria University of Wellington, an artist diploma from the Hartt School of Music, and a doctor of musical arts degree in viola and violin from the University of Kansas.

In 2002 Deighton was recognized by the Pennsylvania-Delaware String Teachers Association as String Teacher of the Year. Several of his former students hold positions in professional orchestras and on the faculties of music schools in the United States and overseas. Recent teaching engagements include master classes in the UK at the Royal College of Music, the Royal Northern College of Music, and Chethams School of Music, and upcoming activities in 2007 include concertos, recitals, and master classes in South and Central America. A regular contributor to musical periodicals, his articles have appeared in such publications as Strings, the American String Teacher, Journal of the American Viola Society, the New York Violist, and the Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Viola Society. He currently serves on the board of the New York Viola Society. In 1999 he organized and directed “ViolaFest,” at Penn State, involving more than 200 violists from across North America and abroad. The Penn State Viola Ensemble, which he directs, has given numerous performances since its formation in 1999, including a recent appearance on a New York Viola Society Collegial Concert where they presented two world premieres.

Having long held a fascination for new music, he has performed premieres of more than fifty new works for viola, many of which were commissioned by or written for him. His first solo CD, Viola Aotearoa, featuring music for viola by New Zealand composers, was released in 2002 on the Atoll label. His playing on this disc was described in The Strad as “brilliant and differentiated,” and the CD was one of the New Zealand Listener’s Top 10 classical recordings of 2002. As a member of the contemporary chamber music duo The Irrelevants, he and saxophonist Carrie Koffman have commissioned and premiered many new works. Their “excellent playing” of several new works was noted by The Strad in a recent recital for the New York Viola Society. Deighton has appeared at three International Viola Congresses as recitalist, chamber musician, and soloist with orchestra, and as master class presenter and panelist.

Recent collaborations include those with the American String Quartet, the New Zealand String Quartet, and Quartet Accorda, as well as with musicians outside the traditional classical field such as the traditional Mäori musical instrumentalist (Taongo Puoro) Richard Nunns. Many of Deighton’s solo and chamber music performances have been broadcast on U.S., European, and Australasian radio. He is a National Recording Artist for Radio New Zealand, and was a member of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He often appears in recital with his wife, pianist Ann Deighton. During the summers he serves on the faculty of the International Musical Arts Institute (IMAI) in Fryeburg, Maine. Other festivals at which he has recently appeared include Music at Penn’s Woods (PA), The Pierre Monteux Festival (ME), the Gold Coast Music Festival (CA), the Dublin International Symphonic Festival, Ireland, the Adam New Zealand Festival of Chamber Music, and Rencontres Musicales Internationales des Graves, France.