CHORUS DIRECTOR
Dr. Timothy J. Campbell
Dr. Timothy J. Campbell is Chorus Director of the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, hailed by The New Yorker’s Alex Ross as “one of America’s boldest orchestras.” Appointed in the Orchestra’s Centennial Season, Campbell became only the third person to hold the position in four decades. He is also Associate Professor of Music at the University of South Dakota and is Founder and Artistic Director of Transept, winner of the 2021 American Prize in Choral Performance and praised by composer Wayne Oquin of The Juilliard School as “the choral art form at its finest.”
Campbell has prepared the chorus for Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in C minor, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Brahms’s A German Requiem with GRAMMY®-winning conductor John Nelson, Mahler’s Third Symphony, Haydn’s The Creation, and the world premiere of Malek Jandali’s A Candle. He has also conducted the orchestra and chorus in works by Bach and Mendelssohn. His preparation of the chorus for Douglas Moore’s Pulitzer Prize-winning opera Giants in the Earth is heard on Pentatone’s world-premiere recording of the work.
Highlights of the Orchestra’s 2026–27 season include Handel’s Messiah, Christmas with the Symphony: ’Tis the Season!, the world premiere of Susie Ibarra’s Kuwentong Karst, and Beethoven’s monumental Missa solemnis.
A Sioux Falls native and passionate advocate for the vocal arts in South Dakota, Campbell founded Transept in 2016 to unite some of the nation’s finest consort singers with select musicians based in the region. Under his direction, the ensemble has become known for imaginatively crafted programs that interweave vocal consort, soloists, and choir. Its repertoire spans ten centuries, from plainchant and Renaissance polyphony to works by living composers.
During its first decade, Transept presented over twenty major concert projects, championed new works and world premieres, and made education and mentorship integral to its artistic mission. The ensemble has collaborated with high school, collegiate, church, and community choirs in South Dakota through concerts, clinics, and masterclasses.
Transept’s second album, All Is Miracle: The Choral Music of Kyle Pederson, was released by Navona Records in 2025 and features four world-premiere recordings. Reviewing the album, Textura praised the ensemble’s “lustrous sound” and “haunting tapestries of solo voices, vocal sub-groups, and instruments.” The GRAMMY®-winning team at Soundmirror produced and mastered All Is Miracle and mastered Transept’s debut album, Live at the Cathedral.
A professional ensemble tenor, Campbell has performed with the GRAMMY®-winning ensembles Conspirare and the Houston Chamber Choir, as well as The Rose Ensemble, VocalEssence, The Singers, the South Dakota Chorale, Kinnara, Cantare Houston, Tucson Chamber Artists, and other professional ensembles. He has toured Germany and Spain with The Rose Ensemble, appeared at Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall with Conspirare, and performed Tallis’s forty-part Spem in alium, one singer to a part, with the Houston Chamber Choir under guest conductor Peter Phillips, director of The Tallis Scholars.
Campbell holds degrees from Bemidji State University (B.S.), the University of Minnesota (M.M.), and the University of Arizona (D.M.A.).