Timothy Salter is a composer, conductor and pianist. He is musical director of The Ionian Singers. As a pianist he has travelled widely, playing with singers and instrumentalists. For many years he taught composition and performance studies at the Royal College of Music, London.

He is a strong advocate of the composer-performer, believing that executant experience has an invaluable effect on composition . He has written a substantial body of choral works and works including chorus, and much of his wide-ranging instrumental music has been written for colleague performers. His compositions include instrumental, chamber and orchestral music; choral music and songs. His music has been recorded on numerous labels. He has received many public and private commissions and his music has been broadcast throughout the world.

Timothy Salter was born in 1942 in Mexborough, Yorkshire, and was brought up in Kent. After obtaining a degree in music at St. John's college, Cambridge, where he won a scholarship, he moved to London; for a short period he taught in a school until an increasing commitment to composing and performing led him to give up his full-time job and become a freelance musician.