Biography

When we hear the music of Tim Wheater, something stirs deep inside us. Something powerful evoking emotions, stirring memories, and healing. This dynamic impact is the result of a lifelong journey, a marriage combining exceptional experience as a musician with a shaman’s knowledge of the healing effect of music.

Unwavering in his insights on the power of music to penetrate our souls, Tim approaches his music — whether composing, performing, recording, producing or lecturing on its healing abilities — with the respect and wonder of a child and the clear intent that only a true virtuoso attempts.

A prodigy born to the flute in his native England, Tim studied at the Guildhall School of Music in London. News of his brilliance reached across the English Channel to Paris where the French government provided a scholarship to study with such musical notables as Marcel Moyse, Jean-Pierre Rampal and Roger Bourdin. His formal education then led him to New York where he studied solo technique at the Eastman School with one of the world’s greatest wind instrument masters, James Galway.

Returning to his homeland, his performing career began in earnest with appearances with the London and Birmingham Symphony Orchestras and with notable ensembles led by conductors Simon Rattle and Sir Adrian Bolt, among others. He also played at musical events throughout Europe with his former teacher, James Galway.

Yet in the early 1980s, this brilliant, world-class flautist with classical training made a move which foreshadowed his eclectic musical insights and evolving career direction. Joining Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, Tim became a founding member of the alternative rock band, Eurythmics. Over the next three years he played keyboards and wind instruments for the band, while learning first-hand the thrill of successful recording and the rigors of performance touring on both sides of the Atlantic.

Wheater’s experience playing keyboards provided profound insights into how the versatility of the synthesizer could be combined with the naturally sweet sound of the flute to create beautiful melodies containing hidden, almost mystical power.

Inspired by the creative liberation provided by contemporary music, Wheater left Eurythmics to explore his singular form of musical expression and composition. The release of his first solo album, Awakenings, attracted critical acclaim and a powerful response from an unexpected quarter. He suddenly became deluged by psychologists and other healing professionals who wanted to share their observations on how his music had produced a healing effect on their patients.

At once shaken and intrigued by these stories of music and healing, Wheater began a journey, a pilgrimage really, to explore the origins of human musical expression. Through this personal search he discovered a rich, ages-old tradition of music serving a pivotal role in healing the mind and body.

Ironically, just as his interest in the therapeutic power of music was awakening, Wheater was stricken with aluminum sulfate poisoning. This substance numbed and partially paralyzed his lips and fingers, making playing the flute impossible. Even in the face of this painful situation, he pressed on in his quest for knowledge.

Traveling the world — from ancient and mystical India where he encountered the richness of the voice as a musical instrument, to studies with American Indians and other indigenous musicians who, like the didgeridoo playing Aborigines of Australia, often enlisted eons-old instruments to contact wisdom deep within the soul — Wheater gradually increased his understanding into how sound and music can tap into a deep healing energy. In the process of cultivating his own voice as an instrument, he gradually healed himself and recovered the sensation in his lips and hands.

Soon Wheater in demand as a speaker, giving voice to the concept of sound healing. As his ability to play the flute returned, his compositions took on new meaning as he expressed the profound insights gained from his pilgrimage. During this period he also wrote musical scores for film and television and entered into a multifaceted artistic collaboration with author and philosopher, Julia Cameron (The Artist's Way). In audio projects with Julia Cameron, his composing and flute expressions were joined by a new skill, recorded narration.

Wheater is also recognized as an emerging master of overtone chanting, having taught the technique to literally thousands over the past decade. Through this work, he encourages and supports each of us to find our true voice and to express it freely and fully.

Wheater’s more than 20 original albums present a broad pallet of sounds, variously combining synthesizers, a selection of traditional and/or ancient instruments and, often, instrumental or chorus-like use of human voices.

Tim Wheater’s album project Incantation represents a mystical quest into the soul. “Incantation is an exploration of my inner journey to a place of open-heartedness," says Wheater, "celebrating a multi-faceted faith in the world and all its mysterious beauty.” Incantation is a dynamic expression of Wheater’s deep knowledge and experience as a musician, combining his musical craftsmanship with his exceptional abilities as a sound healer. Of the music, James Redfield, author of The Celestine Prophecy, says: “Incantation evokes the deepest sense of the mystical.”