Timothy Long is a Juno-nominated conductor, pianist, and composer who is Artistic and Music Director of Opera at the Eastman School of Music and an Assistant Conductor at the Metropolitan Opera. He is an enrolled citizen of both the Muscogee Nation and the Thlopthlocco Tribal Town and is matrilineally Choctaw. 

At the age of 16, Tim made his piano concerto debut with the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra and has since performed as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Lawton (OK) Philharmonic, the Beethoven Society Orchestra of Washington DC, the Sociedad Filarmonica de Conciertos of Mexico City, the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute Orchestra, the Eastman School Symphony Orchestra, and the Eastman Philharmonia. As both a pianist and harpsichordist, Tim has performed throughout the world at venues such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, the Kennedy Center, National Sawdust, the Kimmel Center, Jordan Hall, Wigmore Hall in London, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, Herkules Hall in Munich, Dvořák Hall in Prague, La Halle aux Grains in Toulouse, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Caramoor Festival, and the Dame Myra Hess Series in Chicago, among many others. 

Growing up in the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, Tim learned to play multiple instruments for fun, which eventually led to an unexpected life of conducting. After his early days playing as a violinist in the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, he was appointed Assistant Conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Associate Conductor at the New York City Opera. He has since conducted such groups as the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, the Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble, the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, the Oregon Bach Festival Orchestra, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, the Prince George Symphony, the Regina Symphony, the Continuum Ensemble of Toronto, the Eastman Philharmonia, and the Prague Summer Nights Festival Orchestra. His operatic conducting engagements have included such companies as Wolf Trap Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, City Opera Vancouver, Anchorage Opera, Tulsa Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Colorado, Utah Opera, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, and off-Broadway with The New Group. 

An important part of his artistic development was the opera Missing, a groundbreaking work by Dene-Métis librettist Marie Clements and composer Brian Current. The story comes from the ongoing plague of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) in Canada. In 2026, the tally stands at over 5,000 women, with thousands more in the United States. He conducted the world premiere at City Opera Vancouver and has since performed this extraordinary opera throughout Canada and at the American premiere for Anchorage Opera. His recording of Missing, with ATOM and The Continuum Ensemble (Bright Shiny Things), was nominated for a 2026 Juno Award as Classical Album of the Year (Small Ensemble).

Tim is passionate about his role as president of The Plimpton Foundation (https://www.theplimptonfoundation.org/), which promotes the work of Native American and First Nations performing artists through scholarships, grants, and commissions. 2024 marked the world premiere of Tim’s initiative, The North American Indigenous Songbook. As president of The Plimpton Foundation, he created this project to establish a repertoire where none existed before. Each year, the foundation commissions North American Indigenous composers to write songs that are available for all to sing. The first round of esteemed composers included R. Carlos Nakai, Raven Chacon, Dawn Avery, Sage Bond, Charles Shadle, Timothy Archambault, Connor Chee, and Martha Redbone. Between the Moab Music Festival, the Eastman School of Music and the North American Indigenous Songbook, he has commissioned over 21 new compositions for the genres of song, chamber music, and orchestra. 

In addition to Missing, Tim’s recordings include Alburnum, with internationally renowned baritone Brian Mulligan (Bright Shiny Things, 2022), Beauty Intolerable: Songs of Sheila Silver (Albany Records, 2021), the American Classics recording of Dominick Argento song cycles with Brian Mulligan (2017 Naxos), the Opera America Songbook (Opera America, 2012), and The Music Teacher (Bridge Records, 2008), starring Wallace Shawn, Parker Posey, and Elizabeth Berkley. 

He has appeared on NPR’s More Than Music, CBC’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera, NBC’s Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, CNN’s First of All with Victor Blackwell, and recently had a featured profile in the New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/05/arts/music/tim-long-indigenous-songbook.html). Tim is proud to be on the Board of Directors of OPERA America and is a 2024 inductee into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. He lives in Rochester, NY and New York City, and is a graduate of Oklahoma City University and the Eastman School of Music.