Native Houstonian Timothy Hester graduated from The Juilliard School as a student of the renowned pedagogue Adele Marcus. Currently, Mr. Hester is Associate Professor of Piano at the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music where he also enjoys instructing students in the skills of sight reading, collaborative techniques and also serves as Director of Keyboard Collaborative Arts. Named Outstanding Faculty Member of the year in 2003 as presented by the Moores Society, Mr. Hester works with many vocalists in the Houston area and has taught Opera Studies at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music and is currently on the faculty of the Houston Grand Opera Studio. Mr. Hester’s has appeared worldwide in venues in Britain, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Mexico, Canada, Colombia, China, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. He has been a regular performing faculty member of the Schlern International Music Festival in Northern Italy. In the United States, he has performed the NYC Bargemusic Series, the Ojai Festival in California, the Park City International Chamber Music Festival in Utah, the Texas Music Festival, and the OK Mozart Festival in Oklahoma as well as performing with Da Camera, a Houston-based chamber music ensemble.
He has performed with flutists such as Paula Robison, Andras Adorjan, Ransom Wilson, Carol Wincenc, Nina Perlove, Eugenia Zukerman, Linda Chesis, Marina Piccinini, Brad Garner, Tadeu Coehlo, Robert Dick, Michael Parloff, Tim Day, Stephen Preston, Robert Stallman, Leone Buyse, and his father, the late Byron Hester. He has also especially enjoyed collaboration with such artists as Patricia Racette, Christiaan Bor, Nathaniel Rosen, Arturo Delmoni, Nina Beilina, William Sharp, Leon Speirer, Robert White, Chi Liming, Carmen Pelton, Uri Pianka, Phyllis Pancella, Stefano Algieri, Lucy Shelton, Karol Bennett, Isabelle Ganz, Anthony Elliott, Mitchell Stern, Paul Neubauer, Patrick Wroblewski, Joan Gibbons and Reiko Watanabe - as well as with his esteemed University of Houston colleagues. Mr. Hester’s discography includes twentieth century works of Robert Beaser, Arnold Rosner, Michael Horvit, Roy Harris, Samuel Barber and Bohuslav Martinu as well as the solo CD “KUHF Sessions”, the first recording made in Houston Public Radio’s studio. In addition, Mr. Hester studied extensively with Albert Hirsh and maintains a busy accompanying schedule, also having played master classes for Jean-Pierre Rampal, Pinchas Zukerman, Itzhak Perlman, Carol Wincenc, Richard Stoltzman, Elena Nikolaidi, Renato Capecchi, Vladimir Spivakov, Ruggiero Ricci and many others.