Gregory T.S. Walker (born October 19, 1961) is an American composer, violinist, and guitarist. He was the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Fellowship in 2000, and has performed with major orchestras around the world.
Biography
Walker is the son of music historian Helen Walker-Hill and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker. He studied with violinist Yuval Yaron and received a master's degree in computer music from the University of California at San Diego, and a doctorate in musical composition from the University of Colorado. Walker currently serves as a professor at the University of Colorado Denver. An accomplished composer and violinist, he performed his Concerto No. 1 for Orchestra and Synthesizer with the Oakland Sinfonietta and earned a second master's in composition from Mills College in 1987. In 1993, the Colorado Symphony commissioned Walker to compose what has been acknowledged as the first "rap symphony", Dream N. the Hood.
Walker has been featured in soloist engagements with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Oberlin Orchestra, the Encuentro Musical de los Americas in Havana, Cuba, the Detroit Symphony, the Colorado Symphony, Poland's Filharmonia Sudecka, and the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, as well as at the Library of Congress, England's Lake District Music Festival, Centro Mexicano para la Musica y las Artes Sonoras, Peking University, and the Cork Orchestral Society Concert Series in Ireland. For 25 years, Walker served as concertmaster for the Boulder Philharmonic.
Walker's work as a multimedia performance artist has been showcased at the Sonic Circuits International Festival and the New West Electronic Arts & Media Organization Festival (NWEAMO), and he is featured on the cover of the April 2007 International Musician magazine. He is currently the Artistic Director of the Colorado NeXt Music Festival.
Works
- Kawanakajima for Video Guitar and Chamber Orchestra (2016)
- for CyberGuitar and Symphony Orchestra (2013)
- La La, and the Life Goes On for Violin and Piano (2010)
- Looking for the Perfect Planet for Amplified Chorus and Video Sampler (2009)
- danC for Chamber Orchestra (2008)
- The Passion According to St. Toscanini for Quadraphonic Chorus and Orchestra (2003)
- Dreamcatcher for Electronic Violin and Orchestra (2003)
- 1+1+1=3 for Orchestra (2003)
- Magic Man for Amplified Chamber Orchestra (2002)
- mysterium conceptionis immaculatae for Orchestra (2000)
- Bad Rap for Electric Violin and Chamber Orchestra (Lauren Keiser Music Publishing, 1994)
- Like 'Dis for String Quartet/String Orchestra (1987)
- Dream N. the Hood for Rapper and Orchestra (1993)
References
- Artsandletters.org Awards, "American Academy of Arts and Letters - Award Winners". Archived from the original on 2016-01-31. Retrieved 2015-10-22.,
- "CD bios, Gregory Walker, Helen Walker-Hill". Leonarda.com. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- Walker, George (2009) Reminiscences of an American Composer and Pianist, Scarecrow Press, p. 153
- "Yuval Yaron". Iwalker.scriptmania.com. Archived from the original on 1 March 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- UC Denver Faculty, http://www.ucdenver.edu/faculty-staff/gwalker/Pages/default.aspx
- Westword Magazine, http://www.westword.com/event/stratus-chamber-orchestra-7792325
- Burnim, Mellonee V.; Maultsby, Portia K. (13 November 2014). African American Music. Routledge. ISBN 9781317934431. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- Philadelphia Orchestra, https://philorch.org/pdfs/2009-10%20Season%20Announcement.pdf
- Hathaway, Daniel (2014-10-28). "Violinist Gregory Walker to join Oberlin Orchestra in performance of his father's Poème". Cleveland Classical. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
- ^ Library of Congress, http://blogs.loc.gov/music/files/2015/05/LOC-1213-George-Walker-Bleu.pdf
- Colorado Symphony, http://www.coloradosymphony.org/About/The-Musicians/Detail?musician=Cooper&fn=Peter&in=Oboe
- Golden Music, http://goldenmusic.co/blogs/culture/17783340-gregory-walker-guest-conductor-works-with-our-chamber-orchestra
- Afri-Classical, http://africlassical.blogspot.com/2010/12/gregory-walker-violin-soloist-in-all.html
- This Reviewer, http://thisreviewer.blogspot.com/2007/08/gregory-walker-cos-cmc-presents.html
- "Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra names Charles Wetherbee concertmaster". CU-Boulder College of Music Press Release. 2014-03-12. Archived from the original on 2014-10-14.
- San Diego Tribune, http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/apr/05/nweamo-2016-festival-preview/
- "Voyaging beyond the Classical". Archived from the original on 20 February 2016. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
- "NeXt". 2 September 2015.
- Stratus Chamber Orchestra, http://stratusco.org/samurai
- Opus Colorado, https://opuscolorado.com/2013/03/page/3/ Archived 2016-08-12 at the Wayback Machine
- Denver Post, http://www.denverpost.com/2009/04/08/best-bets-58/
- "Life in the Boulder Phil". BizWest. 2006-02-17. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
- Thornberry, Darren (2015-10-14). "Broomfield Symphony Orchestra opener a little eclectic, a little electric". Broomfield Enterprise. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
- "2014-2015 Rental Catalog" (PDF). Laurenkeisermusic.com. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
- Koskoff, Ellen (2005) Musical Cultures in the United States: An Introduction, Routledge, pg 322
- 1961 births
- 20th-century American guitarists
- 20th-century American male musicians
- African-American composers
- African-American guitarists
- African-American male composers
- American male guitarists
- Living people
- Mills College alumni
- University of California, San Diego alumni
- University of Colorado Boulder alumni
- University of Colorado Denver faculty
- 20th-century African-American musicians
- 21st-century African-American people