Timothy Conner

Timothy Conner, Associate Professor of Practice, Instrumental Performance, joined the faculty of the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in 1995.  In addition to teaching individual studio lessons, he conducts the Frost Trombone Choir, coaches chamber music, teaches courses in trombone pedagogy and literature, and serves as a faculty mentor on multiple doctoral committees.  He has been a featured soloist with the Frost Wind Ensemble and Frost Symphony Orchestra several times, including the world premiere of David Maslanka’s “Concerto for Trombone and Wind Ensemble”, written for him and Gary Green.  Their recording of this work has been released on the Naxos label. He currently performs with several regional orchestras in the South Florida area. Tim is an S.E. Shires Artist.

Tim held the position of Principal Trombone with the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra for eighteen years, until the orchestra’s financial demise in 2003. He also played Principal Trombone in the pit orchestra for the Florida Grand Opera for more than twenty years, and Principal Trombone for the Miami City Ballet for more than six years. He grew up in the Washington, D.C. area where he studied with Milt Stevens of the National Symphony Orchestra.  He received his formal musical education at the Eastman School of Music with John Marcellus.   During his orchestral career, he has performed with the Spoleto, Chautauqua, Heidelberg, and Bedford Springs Festival orchestras, the Naples Philharmonic, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Jerusalem Symphony, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

Tim was featured several times as a concerto soloist with the Florida Philharmonic, and has performed numerous solo recitals in several U.S. cities, including New York City as part of the River to River Festival “Summer Stars” series.  He has been the guest trombone teacher and has presented masterclasses at many other music schools, including the Cleveland Institute of Music and Mahidol University in Bangkok, Thailand. He has performed as a trombone soloist at both the American Trombone Workshop and the International Trombone Festival.

Commercially, Tim has shared the stage with countless artists including Ray Charles, Mel Torme, Natalie Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Roberta Flack, Frankie Valli, the Moody Blues, Toni Tenille, Rita Moreno, Bernadette Peters, and the late Celia Cruz, among many others.  He has recorded on the Mark, Albany, Mercury, Harmonia Mundi, and Naxos record labels. He is a member of the South Florida Musician’s Association, the International Trombone Association, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, as well as the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education.

Tim has been studying and practicing mindfulness meditation since 2010 when he went on his first silent retreat in Thailand. He has completed Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction training (MSBR) through the UHealth Fitness and Wellness Center in Miami. He also completed Mindful Performance Enhancement, Awareness, and Knowledge (mPEAK) training for athletes through the University of California- San Diego Center for Mindfulness.  In 2020, he was part of the “Educator Circle” at The Art of Practicing Institute Summer Program, led by pianist and author Madeline Bruser. He is a member of the University of Miami’s Mindfulness Research and Practice Initiative (UMindfulness), an interdisciplinary collaboration across the university that brings together brain research and mindfulness/contemplative practice training. He has given presentations on mindfulness meditation practice across campus, at the Herbert Wellness Center, at the International Trombone Festival, and to multiple targeted music school groups. Prior to Covid, he led a weekly mindfulness meditation class for interested students at the Frost School of Music.