Charles Timberlake-Biography

Charles Timberlake started formal piano lessons at the age of six and began improvising and composing eight years later.

A law graduate, in 1982 he took up a post teaching French at Yardley Court, a boys' prep school in Tonbridge, Kent, where he stayed for a very happy eleven and a half years as Head of Pastoral Care and Assistant Housemaster.

It was during his time at Yardley Court that Charles first played in public and people had the opportunity of listening to his calming, tranquil and captivating music. Not only was he writing music for carols for performance by the school choir but in 1986 and 1988 he wrote the scores for the school's musical adaptations of Gobbolino the Witch's Cat and The Magician's Nephew.

In 1985 he fell in love with Suffolk where he bought a small cottage as a retreat/bolthole from school life. A keen cyclist and walker it was the quiet country lanes and beautiful surroundings that were to provide the inspiration for much of his earlier recorded music. A year later he came to faith and began to experience the power and love of God in his life (having been confirmed at the age of fourteen).

He put down a collection of solo piano compositions on his first CD, Between the Worlds, released in 1991. After leaving Yardley Court in 1993 he did some hotel and restaurant playing, and had a stint working for a firm of estate agents before moving to work with homeless people in his home towns of Fareham and Gosport, Hampshire. All through this time he began to realise that his music and style of playing was really touching people's hearts, and felt an increasing calling to use his musical gift in a specific way to reach and touch the hearts of 'the man in the street'. In 1996, in response to a calling from God, he visited Dunblane and ministered to the community by playing in the Cathedral over the course of three days a fortnight after the tragic shooting.

In 1998 he bought a Kurzweil electronic piano and accompanying equipment and began playing at craft shows around the country, where he used composing as his 'craft' and began ministering to the visitors at the shows. In 2000 he recorded a second album of piano and instrumental music played on the Kurzweil, entitled The Celestial Picnic. The following year, at one of the shows where he was playing, he met John Daniels, Christian songwriter, composer and musical director. Since that meeting they have collaborated on recording four albums of piano and instrumental music, with John adding orchestral arrangements to Charles' piano tracks.

Wings of an Eagle, released in 2002, is a collection of Charles' compositions including The Eleventh of September, written on the evening of 9/11.

Face of Gold, again all Charles' material, was released the following year.

If You Lead Me was released in 2004 in their joint names, being a combination of Charles' work and their own arrangements of well-known worship songs.

Called to Freedom, released in April 2006, is their arrangement of five well-known worship songs together with six of Charles' compositions and two of John's. This album includes the track Make Me a Channel of Your Peace which has come to be loved by listeners to Radio 2's Good Morning Sunday and which is featured on the new double CD compilation (which can be found elsewhere on this web-site).

Their latest work, Only In Your Eyes, was released on 20th March 2008 and is in memory of Charles' late father, Arthur. It includes six well-known worship songs (including John Wimber's moving Isn't He Beautiful?) and nine original compositions - including a setting of The Lord's Prayer written by Arthur some thirty-five years ago.

In 2003 John moved back with his family to the States - his wife Tami is Texan. The last four albums have been put together via transatlantic links.

In addition to the craft shows, where his music provides visitors with a quiet space within the hustle and bustle of the show, Charles has ministered in hospices as well as schools. He also gives concert evenings of music and conversation in churches around the country under the title 'An Evening with Charles Timberlake'. This year he is also giving a series of Cathedral informal lunchtime recitals. He also accepts bookings for weddings and other private functions where he brings his own inimitable style of playing to variations of well-known oldies, ballads, show tunes and televison themes.

© 2008 Something Music Ltd