Violinist Gregory Walker & Boulder Phil in 'European Sojourn: Infusing Folk With Classical'

[Gregory Walker as Violin Soloist with Boulder Symphony, “The Community Orchestra of Boulder County,” Colorado]

Professor Gregory T.S. Walker of the University of Colorado Denver is currently bringing us up to date on his classical music activities. This post, the second in a series, concerns a concert of the Boulder Symphony which took place on Dec. 17, 2010, at which Dr. Walker performed as violin soloist:

BoulderSymphony.org

“European Sojourn: Infusing Folk With Classical

Friday, December 17, 2010 at 7:30PM

Gregory Walker, violin

at First United Methodist Church, Boulder

Mozart Violin Concerto no. 5 (Turkish)

Tchaikovsky March from the Nutcracker

Vaughan Williams English Folk Song Suite arranged by Arnold Jacob

Rimsky-Korsakov Cappricio Espagnol

Sibelius Finlandia

Christmas Festival by Leroy Anderson

Holiday Sing-alongs!

“As the Boulder Symphony continues to journey to the farthest reaches of creation, we are collecting precious gems of classical music that are based in folk elements. Both Mozart and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov traveled extensively, and absorbed musical elements of all their journeys. The Turkish Violin concerto will be performed by Gregory Walker, who will explore all the possibilities of creation, as Mozart would have done through improvised cadenzas. Rimsky-Korsakov, when he wrote Capriccio Espagnol, which will feature the exceptional solo talents of members of the Boulder Symphony, summed up Spanish life almost as well as Emmanuel Chabrier. For Finlandia Jean Sibelius took a simple folk song of his native land, and by rallying the independence movement against Russia, composed the unofficial national anthem of Finland.

Gregory Walker: Violin Soloist in ALL Barber Concert of Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra Nov. 12 & 13, 2010

[Boulder Chamber Orchestra Presents ALL Barber Nov. 12 & 13. Rossini: Overture to The Barber of Seville; Barber: Knoxville Summer; Barber: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra; Gregory Walker, violin; Szilvia Schranz, soprano; Bahman Saless, conductor. http://www.BoulderChamberOrchestra.org]

As we reported on Dec. 15, 2010, Violinist Gregory Walker was violin soloist on one of NPR's top five contemporary classical CDs of the year: George Walker, Great American Orchestral Music, Vol. 2; Gregory Walker, violin; Andrzej Krzyzanowski, solo flute; Sinfonia Varsovia; Ian Hobson, conductor; Albany Records Troy 1178 (2010). Gregory Walker has updated us on some of his recent activities. The first is the ALL Barber Concert of November 12 & 13, 2010:

University of Colorado Denver

Faculty Bio

"Gregory Walker, Violinist And Multimedia Guitarist
'...excellent soloist...' The New York Times

Professor Gregory T.S. Walker graduated from Indiana University with a B.S. in Music and English with Honors before performing solo synthesizer concerts throughout California under the auspices of the U.C. Touring Artist program and obtaining a Masters degree in Computer Music from the University of California at San Diego. He premiered his Concerto No. 1 for Orchestra and Synthesizer with the Oakland Sinfonietta and earned a second Masters in Composition from Mills College, then completed a Doctorate in Musical Composition at the University of Colorado in 1992.

"Since his marathon performance of Bruch’s Kol Nidre, an original arrangement of Ora No Omboko, and his own Bad Rap for Violin and Chamber Orchestra with the Colorado Symphony on a borrowed Stradivarius in 1996, Walker has been featured with American orchestras such as the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Breckenridge Festival Orchestra, the Ft. Collins Symphony, the Yaquina Chamber Orchestra, the Colorado Music Festival Orchestra, and abroad at Great Britain’s Lake District Music Festival, Cuba’s Encuentro Musical de los Americas, and the Spoleto Festival in Italy.

"Concertmaster of the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra, Dr. Walker is equally at home on acoustic and electric instruments having recorded Kaleidoscope: The Music of African American Women with pianist Helen Walker-Hill and appeared with pop star Lyle Lovett. Albums available on CRI, Orion, Leonarda, and Albany labels feature the 'silky violin tone and beautifully calibrated phrasing' described by the Newark Star-Ledger."

Philly.com: 'Composer father, soloist son team up for world premiere orchestra presentation'

[ABOVE: Gregory Walker; BELOW: George Walker]

Posted on Fri, Dec. 4, 2009
The Philadelphia Daily News interviewed composer George Walker about his new Violin Concerto, to be premiered by his son Gregory Walker:

Philly.com
By Tom Di Nardo For the Daily News
“From the days of Bach, Mozart and Haydn, all the way to the more recent Shostakovich and Jarvi offspring, composing and performing music has often been a family affair. The legacy continues for George Theophilus Walker, a major American composer whose intense music deserves much more attention. Next week, the Philadelphia Orchestra will present the world premiere of his Violin Concerto, written for his talented son Gregory Walker, who performs as soloist. Walker, now 87 and a resident of Montclair, N.J., was the first African-American to graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music in 1945, with diplomas in both piano and composition.”

“Walker's son Gregory has performed much of the standard repertoire, and has played many repertory recitals with his mother, Helen Walker-Hill, and his wife Lori. He has also composed the first rap symphony 'Dream N. The Hood' and an enhanced version of Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' with electronics. He'll be playing his father's intensely difficult Violin Concerto with a loaned $4.5 million 1718 Stradivarius, the instrument played by Zoltan Szekely when he performed the world premiere of Bela Bartok's Second Violin Concerto in 1939. Szekely was a professor at the University of Colorado, from which Gregory Walker received his doctorate and now teaches.”

“Q: Did you compose the Concerto with your son in mind?”
“A: I don't think in terms of writing for a particular performer, but about what I want to hear myself. I have a great confidence in Gregory, who's a wonderful violinist, and I know what he can do, especially in my music. But the piece would have existed anyway. It's just important for him to get the exposure.”

“Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center, Broad and Spruce streets, 8 p.m. Thursday and Dec. 12, 2 p.m. Dec. 11, $39-$125, 215-893-1999, http://www.philorch.org.” [Full Post] [George Walker is profiled at AfriClassical.com]