We are saddened to report that internationally acclaimed conductor, composer, performance arts educator, and friend Tim Waugh passed away on Thursday evening, February 8, 2024. He will be greatly missed by the handbell community, and we extend our deepest condolences to his family, friends, and music groups.
Tim was well known in many performance mediums, including handbell, choral, church music, and musical theatre. Early in his career, he became noted for his work in conducting and teaching children and youth, and was always excited to work with children of all ages. He was a tireless champion for performance arts in the church, classroom, and community.
He continued his work as an independent professional musician, including a career spanning over 33 years of public school music education and with award-winning choral groups in southern West Virginia. He also served many churches throughout his native West Virginia and in North Carolina.
Tim most recently served as the artistic director and founding conductor of Charlotte Bronze Handbell Ensemble, a professional community choir, and a consultant to Charlotte Bronze Mid-Carolinas Handbell Festival, both based in uptown Charlotte, North Carolina. He also served as director of music and coordinator of worship arts at First Presbyterian Church in Salisbury, North Carolina.
Tim had a close relationship with HMA’s event for advanced musicians, Distinctly Bronze, having rung in the early years with David Davidson and having compositions included in the DB repertoire. The American Guild of English Handbell Ringers board (now Handbell Musicians of America) named him a Master Teacher of Rhythm and Movement.
In 2008 Dean Jensen of The Handbell Podcast called Tim “the busiest guy in handbells” and he certainly worked hard in the following years to maintain that title. His conducting, workshop, and performance travels have taken him to almost every US state, four continents, and over 12 countries, including his ancestral Scotland, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Canada, England, and Ireland.
Some of his most memorable performance venues include Simon Bolivar Hall (Center for Social Action through Music – Caracas); Riverside Church; Carnegie Hall, New York City; Hampton Court Palace,Surrey; Sheldonian Theatre, University of Oxford; St. Patrick’s Cathedral; Christ Church Cathedral,Dublin, and just about anywhere there were handbells to be found in Puerto Rico.
In addition to his work in handbells, He actively founded community choruses and music festivals and conducted or chaired many festivals for children’s choir, middle and high school choirs, and bell festivals for all ages.
He has taught and conducted at International Symposium three times, including 1996-Albuquerque, where his commissioned piece “Fancye” was premiered, 2008-Orlando, where he was featured as the conductor for the first Distinctly Teen, and 2016-Vancouver, British Columbia, where he was the mentor/conductor for Sound Effects Youth Division, who premiered his piece “Recollection.”