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Tim Boniface
TIM BONIFACE is a jazz saxophonist and pianist. He is based in Cambridge where he works as a performer, teacher and composer. He is also an ordained priest and theologian, and is Chaplain at Girton College, University of Cambridge.
Tim has collaborated with a wide array of players on the current UK scene, including recordings with Tara Minton, Polly Gibbons and Phil Merriman amongst others, and fruitful partnerships with vocalist Irene Serra, saxophonist Tony Kofi and pianist James Pearson. As director of the Sunday Sessions at The Lab in Cambridge and regular house band member at Ashtead Jazz Club and elsewhere, he has played with an accompanied numerous luminaries, including Jo Harrop, Nigel Price, Scott Hamilton, Peter Horsfall, Natalie Williams, Allison Neale, Immy Churchill, Graham Harvey, Germana La Sorsa, Noemi Nutti and others. His Cambridge Jazz Festival gigs with James Pearson, bassist Jeremy Brown and drummers Sophie Alloway and Steve Brown have been sold out weeks in advance. Along with tenor player Sam Miles he holds a jazz residency at the University Arms hotel in Cambridge.
Tim is the founding Artistic Director of Girton Jazz, a pioneering jazz education and performance scheme unique in the University of Cambridge, which sees top jazz stars brought into Girton College to give workshops to students and public. He is a performance coach with the the Cambridge University Centre for Music Performance, an examiner specialising in jazz with the Cambridge University Faculty of Music, and a freelance teacher and workshop leader. He was an artistic director for St Paul’s Cambridge ArtsFest in 2021 and 2024.
Tim’s jazz history focussed duo collaborations with James Pearson have delighted audiences, and
Tim’s compositional work has focussed mainly on jazz suites responding to sacred text, with recordings of The Eight Words (2017) and The Infant (2019) being followed by his most recent release, Psalter: Themes for Peace (2025), which led to the formation of his latest group with James on piano, bass legend Malcolm Creese on bass, and celebrated drummer Jon Ormston.. A commission for St Alban’s Cathedral, this suite for peace premiered in the Cathedral to an audience of over 400, with the band’s celebrated returning gig ‘Jazz in the Moonlight’ bringing over 700 listeners to this ancient space. It was released with Audio-B in July 2025.
Gear
Selmer Balanced Action Tenor Sax
Conn 6M Alto Sax
Tags
Tim Boniface: Psalter: Themes for Peace

by Neil Duggan
Tim Boniface is a jazz saxophonist and composer. He is also an ordained priest in the Church of England and Chaplain at Girton College, University of Cambridge. As Artistic Director of Girton Jazz, his work involves organising concerts and workshops at the college. In addition, he leads his own ensembles and collaborates with many renowned jazz musicians on the UK scene. Psalter: Themes For Peace bridges the worlds of jazz and deep spirituality in an unexpectedly accessible way. ...
Continue Reading"A swinging and highly accomplished saxophonist ... cool sounds and angular lines" Bebop Spoken Here
Praise for 'The Infant': "Tuneful, sincere and exciting... and it swings. Tim Boniface's quartet play beautifully on his compositions. Some solos will blow you away: Tim's impassioned tenor and alto; Phil Merriman's piano - is there anything he can't do? - as well as the smart interlocking of the rhythm section. The bonus track with Polly Gibbons is a jam session so exciting that you never want it to end. ...Fine music." Brian Case