Rome, Ga. — Shorter University Music Faculty Member Dr. Timothy Renner will be the Baritone soloist in the performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 this weekend with the Helena Symphony in Helena, Montana.

The performance will be held at 7:30 p.m. Mountain Time on Saturday, September 18, and will be available via livestream on the Helena Symphony’s YouTube Channel. For more information, visit www.HelenaSympony.org.

The performance will officially re-open the Helena Civic Center with the first in-person concert since COVID-19. The event website says, “The long-awaited re-opening of in-person concerts begins with the most triumphant celebration of the human spirit – the immortal ‘Ode to Joy’ of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.”

Dr. Renner joined Shorter University’s music faculty in the Fall of 2021 and serves as Director of Opera and Assistant Professor of Voice in Shorter’s Edith Lester Harbin Department of Music.

An active international performing artist, he is a graduate of the prestigious Academy of Vocal Arts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His recent professional engagements include Escamillo in Carmen at the New National Theatre Tokyo (2018), Zurga in Les pêcheurs de perles with Opera Tampa (2019), and Marcello in La Bohème with the Lyric Opera of Kansas City (2019).

As a resident artist at AVA (2016–2020), he performed the title roles in Rigoletto and Rubinstein’s The Demon, as well as di Luna in Il trovatore, Germont in La traviata, Alberich in Das Rheingold, the Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos, and Alphonse XI in La favorite, as well as a variety of song literature and sacred works.

Dr. Renner’s concert repertoire includes Carmina Burana and Fauré’s Requiem with theEastern Symphony Orchestra, Ein Deutches Requiem and Messiah with the New Jersey Master Chorale, and St. Matthew Passion with Sinfonia da Camera. He has earned awards from several competitions, such as the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition, the Jensen Foundation Vocal Competition, the Mario Lanza Scholarship Competition, the S. Livingston Mather Scholarship Competition, the Orpheus International Vocal Competition, the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (Central Region Finalist), and the McCammon Voice Competition (finalist).

A native of Virginia, Renner earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in Voice Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied with Jerold Siena. While studying at UIUC, he was also on faculty at Eastern Illinois University, where he served as Director of Opera and Musical Theatre, Director of University Mixed Chorus, and applied voice faculty. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Music Education and Master of Music in Church Music from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

Dr. Renner lives in Rome with his wife Hillary, a registered nurse, and young daughter Eleanor. He is a member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.

Founded in 1873, Shorter University is a Christ-centered, four-year liberal arts university committed to excellence in education. U.S. News & World Report and The Princeton Review annually include Shorter on their lists of best Southeastern Colleges. The university offers traditional bachelor’s degrees in 40 areas of study, online courses and degree programs, undergraduate programs for working adults, associate’s, and master’s programs.