Dr. Timothy Mahr is in his twenty-seventh season as the principal conductor and music director of the Minnesota Symphonic Winds. In 2023 he retired as a professor of music at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he held the Robert Scholz Endowed Chair in Music, conducted the St. Olaf Band, and taught courses in composition, music education, and conducting. An alum of St. Olaf College, his graduate degrees are from The University of Iowa, where his principal teachers were Myron Welch, Morgan Jones, James Dixon, and John Hill. 
 
A past president of the North Central Division of the College Band Directors National Association (1999–2001), Mahr has served on the board of directors of the National Band Association and the Minnesota Band Directors Association. Active in 40 states as a guest conductor and clinician, Mahr has also appeared professionally in Norway, Mexico, Singapore, Thailand, Japan, and Canada. He has been in residence on over 35 college and university campuses as a guest composer/conductor and has twice conducted performances with the Duluth-Superior Symphony Orchestra. Mahr has conducted over 30 all-state and intercollegiate bands. 
 
Mahr’s compositions have received performances worldwide and many have been published. The first recipient of a commission from the American Bandmasters Association Commissioning Project, Mahr continues to be commissioned by universities, colleges, high schools, state bandmasters associations, and community groups nationally. Notable works have included commissions for the Music Educators National Conference, the Kappa Kappa Psi/Tau Beta Sigma National Intercollegiate Band, the 50th anniversary of the American School Band Directors Association, and two for the United States Air Force Band. He received the 1991 ABA/Ostwald Award for his work The Soaring Hawk. Mahr was elected to membership in the American Bandmasters Association in 1993. Mahr’s family includes his wife, Jill Mahr, a music performer and educator; Jenna and her husband Michael Senich, and Heron.