Tim Weil
has been a musical director, conductor, arranger, orchestrator, composer, bandleader and sideman for over fifty years.
photo by Michael Kushner
His career began as a teenager in his hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota, then on to Boston to study at the New England Conservatory of Music.
Tim eventually ended up in New York City, where he has worked for the last four decades. He has worked from the clubs on Bleecker Street to concert venues in France and Switzerland, and his work has been heard in clubs, theater, film, and television.
At the center of Tim’s work was his contribution to Jonathan Larson’s TONY- and-Pulitzer-Prize winning musical, Rent. He worked on the show from its beginnings at the New York Theater Workshop and throughout its Broadway run, in addition to mounting North American, European, and other international tours along the way.
His book, “Making Rent: The Story Behind the Music that Changed Broadway” is due out on January 13, 2026.
Tim has worked way-way-way-off-Broadway, to Off-Broadway, and on Broadway. He was Musical Director for Stephen Schwartz’s The Baker’s Wife at the York Theater, Patty Griffin’s Ten Million Miles at the Atlantic Theater Company (where he received a Drama Desk nomination for Best Orchestrations), and composed the score for Suzan-Lori Parks’ Fuckin’ A at the New York Shakespeare Festival.
On Broadway, in addition to Rent, Tim arranged and orchestrated the music for Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (starring Audra McDonald), and contributed some original jazz compositions for the show. Tim was the Musical Director of Jeanine Tesori’s Shrek The Musical, and helped mount the show in London’s West End. He also composed and orchestrated the score for Sally Marr and Her Escorts (starring the late Joan Rivers).
His Broadway career began with the ignominious Oh! Calcutta!, playing at the never sold-out Edison Theater, oftentimes to just a handful of audience members. He has done dozens of musicals at regional theaters around the country, including the premiere of Bull Durham at the Alliance Theater in Atlanta, and the Dallas theater Center, where he composed the score to A Christmas Carol. More recently, Tim was happy to be back in Minneapolis to work on South Pacific at the Guthrie Theatre, and Scotland, PA at Theatre Latte Da.
In film, Tim worked on the movie version of Rent, directed by Chris Columbus, and did choral direction for the film The Marc Pease Experience starring Ben Stiller and Anna Kendrick. His most recognizable work in film is Todd Graff’s cult-classic Camp, for which Tim wrote the arrangements, composed an original song, and played on the soundtrack with most of the original Rent band.
Tim lives in New Jersey with his wife, the actor Randy Graff.
