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Composer to visit campus for Spring Festival of New Music and Dance |
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Vicki L. Kroll |
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Apr 1, 2005 |
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| Dr. Gwyneth Walker |
Dr. Gwyneth Walker, who has written more than 130 commissioned works for orchestra, band, and chorus and chamber ensembles, will be the special guest for this year’s Spring Festival of New Music and Dance.
Her works will be featured in performances Tuesday through Thursday, April 5-7, and she will be on campus to discuss the art of composing.
Walker’s love for music started when she was 2 and her older sister started taking piano lessons. “She played the piano that was beneath my bedroom,” she recalled in an interview for the Choral Journal. “The next morning … I crawled toward the keyboard. I climbed on the piano bench and emulated what I had heard. I sort of plunked my hands down and it gave me great pleasure. I started doing this all the time because I had a good ear for it.”
By the time she was in first grade, the New England native started to create her own music.
Her formal music education didn’t begin until she went to Brown University and the Hartt School of Music. She holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees in music composition.
She taught at Oberlin College Conservatory and resigned at age 31 to start composing full time.
She’s never looked back.
“My philosophy of life is to write music to reach the most people who are really listening,” Walker said. “My philosophy about music is to tell the truth, not produce artifice, but to say how we actually feel.”
One of her trademarks is the use of poetry in her songs. She has crafted works using words by Robert Frost, e.e. cummings, Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes and William Blake, among others.
“My main interest is to write for young or older adults, people who can appreciate good poems, sensitive musical settings, or humor and entertainment — perhaps singing something that has wit,” Walker said.
For nearly 25 years, Walker has penned commissioned pieces from her dairy farm in Braintree, Vt. In 2000, the Vermont Arts Council recognized the prolific composer with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
“My job is to put my feelings into music,” she said. “Music is what you do when you are in the midst of your responsibilities and you see the beauty in life.”
Spring Festival of New Music and Dance
Featuring works by Dr. Gwyneth Walker
Tuesday, April 5
Faculty Recital featuring Robert Ballinger, Jeannie Bruggeman-Kurp, Lauraine Carpenter, Erik Johanson, Nancy Lendrim, Bonnie Rowe, Garth Simmons and Al Taplin at 8 p.m. in the Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall
Wednesday, April 6
Student Recital at 8 p.m. in the Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall
Thursday, April 7
Panel discussion on the art of composing with Walker, UT music faculty members Dr. Lee Heritage, Dr. Stephen Hodge and Dr. David Jex, and area composers at 1 p.m. in the Center for Performing Arts Recital Hall
Large Ensemble Concert featuring the UT Wind Ensemble, the University Orchestra, Women’s Chorus and Concert Chorale at 7:30 p.m. in Doermann Theater
For more information on the free, public events, call the UT music and dance department at 419.530.2448.
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