Timothy Long

Timothy Long is a versatile figure who has been widely heard as a pianist and conductor and plays several other instruments as well. He is also a prominent educator. Long was born on December 19, 1967, in Holdenville, Oklahoma. He is of Creek and Choctaw background and is a member of the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma. Long's mother began to listen to classical music while quarantined for several years with tuberculosis and continued to do so at the family home while cleaning house; the young Long, whose sister Lisa also became a musician, soaked up the symphonies of Beethoven and was never in doubt about his choice of career. He played a toy piano starting at age three, graduated to a real one at five, and by his teens, could play saxophone, flute, clarinet, oboe, trumpet, euphonium, piccolo, marimba, and violin. Long attended Oklahoma City University, studying piano and violin, graduating in 1990 and working his way through school by playing in the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. He went on to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, for a master's, studying piano performance and literature. In 1993, Long joined the faculty at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, where he remained as of the early 2020s. Long served as assistant conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic under Robert Spano (after impressing Spano with his work on a production of the Thomas Adès opera Powder Her Face), was associate conductor for two years at the New York City Opera, served as an opera coach at the Boston Lyric Opera, the Juilliard School, and Long Beach Opera, and taught at Juilliard School, the Yale School of Music, and the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Long has extensive experience as both a pianist and conductor. In the latter capacity, he has appeared as a soloist with the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, the Lawton Philharmonic, and the Sociedad Filarmónica de Conciertos of Mexico City, among other groups. Long has developed a career as a collaborative pianist, backing baritone Brian Mulligan on several recordings. He has been especially active as an opera conductor, appearing with such major companies as the Boston Lyric Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, Utah Opera, and the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. With Mulligan, he released the album Alburnum on the Bright Shiny Things label in 2022.
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