This page contains the following links and information intended primarily for the use of journalists or those preparing programs or publicity materials related to the music of Gwyneth Walker. Links on the website's home page contain all other information regarding Walker's music.
Basic Information:Biography
Dr. Gwyneth Walker (b. 1947) is a graduate of Brown University and the Hartt School of Music. She holds B.A., M.M. and D.M.A. Degrees in Music Composition. A former faculty member of the Oberlin College Conservatory, she resigned from academic employment in 1982 in order to pursue a career as a full-time composer. For nearly 30 years, she lived on a dairy farm in Braintree, Vermont. She has now returned to her childhood hometown of New Canaan, Connecticut.
Gwyneth Walker has been a proud resident of Vermont. She is the recipient of the Year 2000 "Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Vermont Arts Council as well as the 2008 "Athenaeum Award for Achievement in the Arts and Humanities" from the St. Johnsbury (VT) Athenaeum. In 2012, she was elected as a Fellow of the Vermont Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Walker's catalog includes over 200 commissioned works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, chorus, and solo voice. The music of Gwyneth Walker is published by E.C. Schirmer (choral/vocal music) and Lauren Keiser Music (orchestral/instrumental music).
In recent years, Gwyneth Walker traveled across the United States working with a variety of musicians as they recorded her works. As a result of these collaborations, several new CDs have been released: A Vision of Hills (piano trios and string works, performed by Trio Tulsa), An Hour to Dance (music for SATB chorus recorded by the choirs at Whitman College), Now Let Us Sing! (with Bella Voce Women’s Chorus, Burlington, Vermont), The Sun Is Love (solo voice and piano works performed by Chicago artists Michelle Areyzaga and Jamie Shaak), and Scattering Dark and Bright (song cycles recorded by the Walker-Eklof Duo).
In addition to the composing of new works, there has also been a special project of creating orchestral accompaniments for many of the choral and vocal works in the Walker catalog. Thus, the Songs for Women’s Voices, Three Days By the Sea, I Thank You God, and the song cycle, No Ordinary Woman!, have all been orchestrated. Another new work, A Testament to Peace, combines three peace-oriented choral works (Tell the Earth to Shake, The Tree of Peace, and There is a Way to Glory) into a set with chamber orchestra. Recently premiered by the Evanston (IL) Symphony is The Promised Land songs for Soprano and Orchestra based on familiar American songs.
Another special project has been the creation of works for orchestra with narrator. Muse of Amherst (based on the poetry of Emily Dickinson) has been performed by several New England orchestras. And, By Walden Pond (with readings of H. D. Thoreau) was premiered in 2009 by the Carson City (NV) Symphony. The latest addition is Let America Be America Again, based on the poem by Langston Hughes.
A special collaboration has been formed with "Musica Harmonia," an ensemble based at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA. Starting in the Spring of 2013, the players will prepare a recording of Gwyneth Walker's chamber works. The CD will feature a new work, The Peacemakers, inspired by the life and writings of Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Leymah Gbowee (an EMU alumna).
