Tim Getz
Tim Getz grew up with and into music. One of his earliest memories is of sitting in the church balcony and watching the organist's feet as they moved on the pedals. His mother played an organ at home, and Tim dreamed of playing the organ. However, when he was in the third grade, his mom replaced the home organ with a piano and Tim started piano lessons. It was a little disappointing at first, but in seventh grade, he started organ lessons, as well, and earned his first key to the family's Lutheran church in Rapid City, SD, so that he could practice. He also played the cello and sang in the choir. When he was a junior in high school, Tim's family moved to Brookings, SD, and he became organist at the Presbyterian church.
After high school, Tim moved to Minneapolis and the University of Minnesota to earn a double BA in Organ (of course!) and Choral Music Education, which was a requirement to be a choral conductor. While there, he worked as organist at Wesley United Methodist Church in downtown Minneapolis, as well as accompanist and occasional conductor with the Metropolitan Boys Choir. With his education degree in hand, Tim moved to Chicago to teach at a Lutheran (ELCA) elementary school. He continued his own education with Paul Manz, learning in particular about improvisation, a challenging topic. He returned to Minneapolis for the Masters in Sacred Music (MSM) program at LutherSeminary and St. Olaf College as a part-time student while working as a full-time church music director. It was a great experience, rather like going to a daily music workshop related to his job, with such music notables as Paul Westermeyer, John Ferguson, and Anton Armstrong.
Few professional church organists or choir directors find all their jobs within a single denomination or music genre; Tim is no exception. He was tired of Minnesota winters, so in 2000 he moved to an Episcopalian church in Orange County, CA. Because it was a part-time position, he also played and sang in other professional capacities that included Villa Park High School, Orange County Women's Chorus, Pacific Chorale, and a professional Dickens Caroling group. Tim's keyboarding and conducting skills have grown significantly with this variety of experience.
Tim became Grace's Director of Music in early 2010 and found another opportunity to grow in music as he grows the program to the next musical level. He sees the choir as responsible for providing leadership to the congregation for the worship service, as well as a way to involve more people in worship, taking them to a new musical level and quality of performance.
