profile

Zehnder is their last name. Twins Tom Zehnder and Tim Gibbs Zehnder currently compose, arrange, perform and record as an independent duo based in Los Angeles. Tim plays bass and doumbek, Tom plays guitar and djembe, and the two raise their voices together in elaborate duets.

Much of the time, the twins have the privilege of rounding out their band with cellist Adrienne Woods, drummer Mike Boggio and percussionist Emiliano Almeida.

With Hollywood-club-playing experience and a large vocabulary of liturgical “languages” in which they are fluent, they offer a compelling, progressive blend of concert and inclusive worship leadership to local, national and international gatherings. Celebrated as the “heart of the conference” by many of the 1200 people at the 2006 APCE Conference in St. Louis, the band recently was commissioned by Yale Divinity School to compose a song for, lead worship music, and offer a concert at the Faith as Way of Life Conference, 2007.

Raised in Los Angeles, the twins got an early start in music. Their father, the late John Zehnder was a multi-instrumentalist and head of the music school at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. Mother Elizabeth is an accomplished painter and poet. Both were folk singers in the 60’s and made multipart singing a natural and fun family pastime. By the time their sons were ten, the twins were writing and singing together as a duo. Mostly self taught on their instruments, Zehnder freely moved between the “ear-playing” folk/rock world and a sight-singing, music-reading realm at school. As their compositional voices grew, they pursued and earned degrees in music composition from UCLA, both graduating summa cum laude.