'Gwyneth Walker Day' Feb. 25

In New Caanan, Connecticut

Renowned American composer Gwyneth Walker of Braintree will return to her hometown of New Canaan, Conn. this week in preparation for Sunday, Feb. 25, which First Selectman Judy Neville will declare as Gwyneth Walker Day.

On that same day the Congregational Church of New Canaan will honor Dr. Walker when its choirs will perform five of her pieces at the church’s 9:30 and 11:15 a.m. services.

(Walker's 60th birthday will be celebrated in Randolph in the fall. A full weekend of concerts, including 10 or more choral groups and many soloists, will present a variety of her works at Chandler Music Hall.

A former faculty member of the Oberlin College Conservatory, she resigned from academia in 1982 in order to pursue a career as a full-time composer. Since that time, Walker has composed over 160 commissioned works for orchestra, band, chorus and chamber ensembles and has become the national bestseller for E. C. Schirmer, her choral publisher.

Walker considers the Congregational Church the home of her music and her faith. She also says that God's Acre is always in her heart and a beautiful lithograph of God's Acre by Walter DuBois Richards hangs proudly in her living room in Vermont.

A favorite, yet uncomfortable, memory of her early life is of working on compositions at the upright piano and then trying to notate the music while sitting at a preschool desk, on a preschool chair, in the classroom! After many hours of cramped work, some respite was found in playing basketball with minister Charlie Smith! "How's the music going?" he would shout between taking shots.

The Congregational Church’s Music Director Jo Deen Blaine Davis commented recently, "What an honor it has been to become acquainted with Gwyneth Walker. The choir has enjoyed rehearsing and what a great opportunity it will be for the choirs to meet a composer."

For anyone wanting to preview Gwyneth’s music, her website, www.gwynethwalker.com is chock full of essays, reviews, and radio interviews. One of the more astonishing aspects of her website is that almost every composition for chorales, orchestra and chamber music is accompanied by a recording that one can download either streamed or MP3.