Wilmington Symphony Orchestra
  • Home
  • About
    • Conductor
    • Orchestra Roster >
      • Player Bios
    • Board of Directors
    • WSO Staff
    • Bylaws
    • Feedback
    • Area Guide
    • Contact Us
  • Concerts
    • Next Concert
    • Masterworks Series >
      • Land and Sea
      • Unfinished Business
      • Storied Past
      • Russian Classics
      • Strings and Harp
    • Free Family Concert
    • Symphony Pops
    • Youth Orchestra
    • Program Notes
    • Glad You Asked
    • Dinner Discount Program
  • Tickets
    • Season Tickets
    • Single Tickets
    • Flex-Pass
    • Group Tickets
    • Directions
    • Seating Chart
  • Events
    • Golf Classic
    • Beethoven 15K/5K
  • Contribute
    • Individual Giving >
      • Wilmington Symphony Society
      • Annual Fund Giving Levels
      • Legacy Gifts and Endowment
      • Planned Giving
    • Corporate Giving >
      • Sponsorship
      • Underwriting
      • Corporate Giving Levels
    • Music Underwriting
    • Conductor Circle and Sponsors
  • News
    • Press Releases
  • WSO Youth
  • For Musicians

David Walker is a Local Rising Star

2/20/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
By Kharin Gibson

​David Walker is a young man filled with aspiration and talent.  This combination has afforded the humble saxophonist a position among a pantheon of locally recognized musicians.  Walker is a recent award recipient of the 41st Annual Richard R. Deas Student Concerto Competition in the UNCW Division.

The late Dr. Richard R. Deas, former chair of the UNCW Department of Music, helped to create the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra in 1971. Later, in 1976, he assisted in developing this correlating music competition as a way to give talented young musicians an opportunity to perform with a symphony orchestra.

Raised in Leland, Walker remembers his growing interest in the saxophone as a young student at Belville Elementary School. When a high school band came to perform at his school, his passion for the instrument became solidified.

Walker credits his current musical success to a few inspirational people he has connected with along the way. His high school band director, Christopher Cook, was the first real influencer by encouraging him to join the marching band.  Cook had a big effect on Walker academically.

“He pushed my understanding of jazz and what I could really get out of the music,” says Walker. “The world of music really opened up for me.” It was at this time that Walker decided he would major in music.

Walker was filled with the determination to take his passion for the saxophone to the next level. He began taking private lessons with Michael Waddell who came highly recommended by Jim Varno, an instrument repair technician for Brunswick County and avid performer on the music scene.  After about a year of lessons under his belt, Walker auditioned for the UNCW music program.

With his acceptance to the program in the Fall of 2014, he began studying under Dr. Frank Bongiorno, professor and current department chair of UNCW’s music department.

“I owe a lot to Dr. Bongiorno,” Walker admits. “I am so impressed by the way he interacts with his students. He takes an individualized approach to each student.”

Walker adds that when each player attains a certain level of expertise, Bongiorno encourages them to play music suitable to their individual style.

In preparing for the competition, Walker explained how he had to choose a concerto piece to play from memory. On the day of the competition, he remembers being extremely nervous, especially when it was decided that he’d be the first to perform. To top things off, he had used his hour break from his campus job for the performance.

“It was the hardest thing I’d ever done,” he recounts. After he returned to work that day, he received the news that he had won the competition. At first, he didn’t believe it. The news was so surreal that he admits it took him an entire day to process it.

As a musician, Walker is regarded as someone with presence. He credits this not only to Bongiorno but also to Leroy Harper, Jr., a saxophonist who used to play with James Brown. Bonjiorno helped shape his classical style, while Harper influenced his rock and jazz style. Walker met Harper at an open mic night at a sports bar in Leland where Leroy had been part of the house band. The two formed a friendship and Walker received a lot of inspiration from him. “I shape my [jazz] sound after the way he plays,” he says, “I don’t think I’d be doing what I’m doing without him.”

Walker has formed his own band with a handful of college friends and plays locally in downtown Wilmington. The band, FEEBS, can be seen at Bourbon Street on Friday and Saturday nights and Walker feels that “the band has potential with a decent local following.” They play a variety of tunes from Childish Gambino to Elvis.

Walker is looking toward the future and wants to pursue a master’s degree in music performance while also teaching at the collegiate level. He explains that his interest in teaching stems from his desire to “give back to students like my teachers have given to me.” He has aspirations of performing globally one day.
​
As a promising musician, Walker is grateful for the influence and support that has been bestowed upon him from his mentors, as well as family members. Both his parents and grandparents have been avid supporters of his musical endeavors and were extremely pleased to learn about his recent honor. The encouragement and support are paying off. There is no doubt that the sky is the limit for this talented young man.
0 Comments

Wilmington Symphony Announces Winners of the Annual Student Concerto Competition

2/12/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
Wilmington Symphony Orchestra announced the winners of the 41st Annual Richard R. Deas Student Concerto Competition.

David Walker, saxophone, won the UNCW division, Camden Stohl, violin, won the high school division and Finian Long, violin, won the junior division.
​
The competition was judged by Marc Callahan, assistant professor at UNC’s Department of Music, Catherine Garner, pianist and teaching instructor at East Carolina University and Eric Pritchard, first violinist of the Ciompi Quartet of Duke University.
​
David Walker and Camden Stohl will be featured soloists accompanied by the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra on the Masterworks “Polovtsian Dances” concert on Saturday, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m. at the Wilson Center.

0 Comments

UNCW Music Major David Walker to Perform with Wilmington Symphony Feb. 3

2/2/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
UNCW music education major David Walker’s dream of performing with an orchestra will finally come true.  Walker ’18 is one of the student musicians who will take center stage with the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra at the Masterworks Series concert. The Feb. 3 event begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Wilson Center.

Walker is UNCW’s division winner of the 41st annual Richard R. Deas Student Concerto Competition. The competition was open to students in grades 4-8 (junior division), 9-12 (high school division) and to UNCW students who enrolled as majors or minors in the Department of Music. Audition pieces were required to be performed from memory. The winner of each division becomes a featured performer at a symphony orchestra concert.

“I think every student who intends to perform as a career should have this opportunity. It’s great that the university puts on this kind of competition,” said Walker, a saxophonist. “I’ve had a couple of rehearsals with the symphony, and each time I get more excited about the performance.”

Walker will perform Czech classical composer and conductor Karel Husa’s “Élégie et Rondeau” for alto saxophone and orchestra. High school division winner Camden Stohl, who attends Hoggard High School, will perform Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor, Op. 26. Roland-Grise Middle School violinist Finnian Long, winner of the junior division, will play with the Wilmington Symphony Youth Orchestra at the Free Family Concert on April 29.

The competition is named in honor of former UNCW Department of Music Chair Richard R. Deas, who helped establish the Wilmington Symphony Orchestra in 1971 and assisted in developing the competition in 1976.

"The symphony has been pleased to feature young talent in the competition since the 1970s," said Steven Errante, UNCW Department of Music professor and Wilmington Symphony Orchestra and and Youth Orchestra conductor. "Many of our winners have gone on to distinguished careers in music. It’s one way the symphony and UNCW can give back to the community and promote its youngest members."

Besides the student performances, the Masterworks Series concert includes Borodin’s “Polovtsian Dances” and “Prince Igor Overture” along with a premiere of “The Dance of the Coin,” a multi-media work for film, dance and music composed by Julia Walker Jewell with choreography by Lesa Rogers Broadhead.
​

-- Venita Jenkins

0 Comments

Communique: Wilmington Symphony Orchestra Premieres Music, Dance, Film: "Dance Of The Coin"

2/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
The Wilmington Symphony Orchestra presents a multi-disciplinary concert Saturday, February 3rd. This is a layered treatment of Julia Walker Jewell's original music, The Dance of the Coin, with orchestration, film, and live dancers. 

Wilmington Symphony Orchestra Conductor, Steven Errante, composed the orchestration and Lesa Broadhead choreographed the dance included live and in the film, which was produced by Honey Head Films. 

Credit WHQR/ggThe concert, titled "Polovtsian Dances," also includes music by Alexander Borodin, musicians from the Richard R. Deas Young Artists Concerto Competition, pre-show lobby dance by Dreams students, and food collection for Orchestras Feeding America. 

Click HERE to listen to Steven Errante, Lesa Broadhead, and Julia Walker Jewell talk about The Dance of the Coin. The concert begins at 7:30 pm Saturday, 2/3 at CFCC's Wilson Center. 

0 Comments

Performing with the Symphony

2/1/2018

0 Comments

 
Picture
by SIMON GONZALEZ

Longtime Wrightsville United Methodist music director and pianist Julia Walker Jewell will be the featured soloist with the Wilmington Symphony at the Wilson Center on Feb. 3, performing her original composition "Dance of the Coin".  

"It's a multimedia piece with a film that will show in the background and dancers choreographed by Lesa Rogers Broadhead," Jewell says.  "The piece stands on its own without anything else, but I envisioned it with these things and works really nicely as a film score and dance."

The inspiration comes from the Nazis' treatment of the Jewish people during World War II.  Jewell wrote it in 2010 after reading a book of poetry about the Holocaust.

"I had a very emotional reaction to the material," she says.  "I heard lots of music when I was reading the poems".

The composition tells the story of a coin passing from hand to hand in 1942 Germany.  "We see several vignettes, whether in our minds listening to the piece or the dancers or watching the film," she says.  "We see how people treat each other.  Jewish people, Germans, Nazis.  Amidst the strife in the topic we see hope throughout.  I don't want it to be a downer.  I want people to have inspiration and hope to keep something like that from happening again."  
0 Comments

    Archives

    August 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    September 2017
    February 2017
    September 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    May 2015
    January 2015
    March 2013


    Categories

    All
    2015-16 Season Preview
    Beethoven 15K/5K
    Edwin McCain
    Student Concerto Competition


    RSS Feed

Picture
5032 Randall Parkway
Wilmington, NC 28403
Office Hours: 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Mon.-Fri.
910-791-9262 WSO Office
910-791-8970 Fax

info@wilmingtonsymphony.org

910-362-7999 Box Office
Financial support is derived from ticket sales, sponsorships and underwriting, corporate and private contributions, grants, and special fundraising events. Details and more information are available here. To make an immediate gift to the Wilmington Symphony, follow the donate link below. 
Picture
The 2018-19 Masterworks Series
Picture
next concert
Picture
TO ORDER TICKETS:

by Phone
(910) 362-7999


by Internet
www.capefearstage.com

In Person
Tickets can be purchased by visiting the box office in person. 

Box Office Walk-In Hours
Monday-Friday 2pm-6pm

    Join our E-list:

Join

Connect with us!

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Mission Statement

The Wilmington Symphony Orchestra is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization governed by a Board of Directors comprised of elected members of the community dedicated to the mission of the orchestra.  The mission of the Wilmington Symphony is to provide symphonic music at the highest possible degree of excellence, to provide performance opportunities for area musicians, and to provide cultural benefits to the Greater Cape Fear regional communities.
©2014-15 Wilmington Symphony Orchestra and WilmingtonSymphony.org  |  All Rights Reserved  |  Wilmington Symphony Orchestra, Steven Errante, Conductor