Tim Berens, Bio Highlights

Played classical, electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, mandolin and bouzouki in a cornucopia of musical styles in hundreds of performances at Music Hall, 35+ CDs, 5 PBS television specials, 7 Far East tours, 6 performances at Carnegie Hall, and a performance at the 2008 Olympic Games. Played 26 years for Erich Kunzel. Was regularly featured as a soloist and worked closely with many guest artists such as Kristin Chenoweth.

Naples Philharmonic Orchestra		200+ services
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra		100+ services
National Symphony Orchestra		3 PBS Specials from the lawn of the United States Capitol in Washington D.C.
Philadelphia Orchestra		At Saratoga
Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra		Touring with Erich Kunzel
Shenzhen Philharmonic		Touring with Erich Kunzel
New World Symphony		Michael Tilson Thomas’s recording of “Rhapsody in Blue”
Colorado Symphony Orchestra		PBS special conducted by Marin Alsop featuring Marcus Roberts
Chinese National Opera Orchestra		At the “Egg” in Beijing.
The New York Pops		At Carnegie Hall
Many orchestras in smaller cities		Many smaller orchestras such as Dayton, Fort Wayne, and Oklahoma City have hired me when they needed an orchestral guitarist.

Highlights: Transcribed the piano part for “Rhapsody in Blue” to be played by 2 guitars, and performed Gershwin’s masterpiece 7 times with the Cincinnati Pops and other orchestras. Performed “Concierto de Aranjuez” with the Ohio Valley Symphony in 2007. Released 3 well-reviewed CDs of jazz. Performed hundreds of times in jazz clubs with small jazz ensembles, and more than 1,000 “gigs”.

Created 100+ arrangements for orchestra that have been performed by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, The New York Pops, The Los Angeles Philharmonic and more than 30 other orchestras in venues from Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center to the Hollywood Bowl.

Recent high profile performances include an arrangement of "Tom Sawyer" that was played for the band Rush when they received a lifetime achievement award, an arrangement of the "Star Spangled Banner" that was performed in Central Park by the New York Pops for the Memorial Concert for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, and an arrangement of pieces by Chuck Brown performed by the National Symphony Orchestra on the lawn of the US Capitol building.

Erich Kunzel, Steven Reineke and Mary Judge trained me in the method of writing arrangements and preparing scores and parts that evolved at the Cincinnati Pops during the creation of 90+ recordings. The Cincinnati Pops method results in parts and scores that are player ready, conductor ready, soloist ready, library ready, audience ready and management ready at the first rehearsal.

Bachelor of Music, Major in Classical Guitar Performance, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

Masters of Music in Orchestral Conducting, The Ohio State University.