Timothy Wenzel
Timothy’s personal story
Born in a small town on the shore of Lake Michigan, he spent much of his childhood pursuing the wonders of the lake and surrounding sand dunes and woodlands. He began taking piano lessons at the age of five years; this after copying his brother’s lessons the previous year.
As a teen, he moved with his family to several parts of the United States. He graduated from the University of Missouri in Saint Louis, obtained his Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from Cornell University and then finished his academic training at the University of California in Berkeley as a post-doctoral researcher in organometallic chemistry.
He then moved to industry, working in central research for two of the largest chemical companies in the world, living first in West Virginia and currently in Michigan.
All this time he managed to have access to a piano (and later electronic keyboards) for writing and recording songs. Only in the last four years has this become a serious passion, with nearly a hundred unpublished songs waiting to be polished and perhaps released on CDs as time permits. He recently released his first CD, “Mountains Take Wing” to enthusiastic acclaim in March of 2012 on the CD Baby label.
Timothy writes music for visual media and for inspirational listening in a broad, original style perhaps best described as a New Age/Celtic acoustic fusion.
Excerpt from RJ Lannan, Zone Music Reporter: “… His album, Mountains Take Wing, is twelve tracks of Nordic/Celtic music that allows the listeners to climb to the apex, take the cold chill of despair away and allows our minds to journey far and beyond the limits of the physical… This is my first encounter with Timothy Wenzel and I like it. His music is gentle, but there is a quiet power behind his compositions. It made me want to hear much more from this audio alchemist. Perhaps he will change more notes into gold.”
Carmen Allgood of Indie Waves and World-Wide Waves“…the meditative reflection of composer Timothy Wenzel, whose music is being heralded as a new dawn in New Age arrangements with classics such as Gently Falls the Rain…” https://www.thecoloradowave.com/podcasts/
Awards/Nominations: Finalist, 2010 Hollywood Music in Media Awards, for “Birka” Finalist, 2011 Hollywood Music in Media Awards, for “Snow Falling Softly” and for “Luminous Flight” (w/ Sarah Gurr). Finalist, 2012 Hollywood Music in Media Awards for “Mountains Take Wing” and for “Desert Dream” (w/ Sarah Gurr).
Finalist, USA Songwriting Contest, 2011, for Birka.
Honorable Mention, Great Lakes Song Writing Contest 2011 for “Appalachian Spring”
Honorable Mention, West Coast Songwriters International Song Contest “Birka” 2010.
Honorable Mention, West Coast Songwriters International Song Contest “Gently Falls the Rain” and “Mountains Take Wing” 2011.