TINKER, WILLIAM (b. 1934)

William Dean Tinker (born Feb 16, 1934) is a native of St Louis, Missouri who has received critical acclaim for his artistry as a pianist, organist and harpsichordist in Europe and the United States. He is a graduate of The Juilliard School, New York City, The New England Conservatory of Music, Boston, Massachusetts, and the Amsterdamisch Conservatorium, The Netherlands. His teachers include Leo C. Miller, Joseph Raieff, piano; Vernon de Tar, Donald Willing, and Anton Heiller, organ; Bernard Wagenaar and Louis White, composition; and Margaret Mason and Gustav Leonhardt, harpsichord.

 

In 1952, William Tinker won the St. Louis Symphony Young Artists Competition. In 1959, he was awarded a grant to study in Europe by the Frank Huntington Beebe Fund for Musicians. In 1962, he was presented the Sweelinck Medal for his performance of the complete organ works of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck for Radio Netherlands. Dr. Tinker has performed more than 2500 recitals, radio and television programs, including the complete organ works of J. S. Bach five times.

 

Highlights of Dr. Tinker's musical career are: directing two performances of The Christmas Story by Heinrich Schutz with Chamber Chorus and Orchestra for WGBH television in Boston, MA, in 1958; the founding of the the Fort Worth, Texas Bach Players in 1981 which presented, over a period of five years, free concerts of the complete chamber music, concertos, and solo cantatas of J. S. Bach in concerts at the Kimball Museum of Art, while teaching at Texas Christian University and the series of 256 Sunday Afternoon Recitals performed on the famous mechanical action instrument built by Rudolph von Beckerath at Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church Mississippi, Cleveland, Ohio from 1971-1976. These were public recitals recorded for WCLV Cleveland radio broadcasts.

 

Dr. Tinker retired in 2007 as Minister of Music from St. Peter Lutheran Church, Dubuque, Iowa. He and his wife are the parents of five sons. They are residents of the Mayflower Community in Grinnell, Iowa. William Tinker began a professional acquaintance with Robert Noehren in 1957 at the New England Conservatory, Boston, Massachusetts, when Dr. Noehren was installing a new instrument that he designed and built for the Carr Organ Studio. He has held major church positions as Director of Music (Organist-Choir Director) in Indianapolis, Indiana (St. Pauls Episcopal Church), Cleveland, Ohio (The Old Stone Church Public Square), New York City, New Yorl (Church of the Ascension-assistant to Vernon de Tar), Boston, Massuchusetts (The Old South Church, assistant to Dr. Carl McKinley), Fort Worth, Texas (Christ the King and St. Annes Episcopal churches), and Dubuque, Iowa (St. Peter Lutheran Church ELCA). He has held faculty positions with Indiana University, Baldwin- Wallace College, Oberlin College, and Texas Christian University. Twenty-three churches have invited Dr. Tinker to be their organ consultant.