New Zealand born Tim Hopkins grew up in Brisbane, Australia, where he planned a career in graphic arts until taking up the saxophone at age 15. He graduated from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music then began an impressive performance career array of musical artists, such as Vince Jones, Paul Grabowsky, James Morrison, Don Burrows, Mike Nock, Kim Patterson, Kevin Field, Frank Gibson Jnr, Nathan Haines, Mark de Clive Lowe, Andy Browne, Roger Fox, King Kapisi, Gray Bartlett You Am I, Kate Ceberano, Ed Kuepper, Doug Williams, Midnight Oil, and Jackie Orszaczky.
The release of his debut album, Good Heavens (1993), coincided with winning the National Jazz Saxophone Award at the Wangaratta Festival of Jazz in Australia. By the end of the 1990s he had recorded another four CDs, toured South East Asia, Canada, and Europe. In 1999, on an Australia Arts Council grant, he studied with saxophonist George Garzone in New York City. While there, he played with Jim Black and Seamus Blake, and wrote, arranged and performed with an ensemble called Phydia featuring a string quartet with a standard jazz quartet line up.
In 2000, Hopkins moved to New Zealand and began recording and compiling his 6th solo CD Hear Now After. The album was released in March 2008, features many of the musicians listed above and other players from New Zealand and Australia, including appearances by drummer Tony Hopkins, Mike Nock, Max Stowers, Dixon Nacey, Aaron Coddel, Jonathan Zwartz and Sean Wayland. The first single, Loophole, features TV presenter Russell Harrison on vocals, rapper King Kapisi, percussionist Miguel Fuentes and Hopkins on an assortment of instruments. The track was included on a NZ On Air compilation disc and features a black and white video directed by the NZ Independent Film Company.
His stunning Rattle release, Seven, was a finalist in the jazz category of the 2012 New Zealand music awards.
