Jim Walker, an internationally recognized flutist, who has performed with everyone from Paul McCartney to Leonard Bernstein, will present a guest artist recital and master class at the West Virginia University Creative Arts Center, Monday, Feb. 21.
The mini-recital begins at 5 p.m. and the master class at 8 p.m. in the Bloch Learning and Performance Hall (200A). Both events are free and open to the public.
From jazz to pop to classical, television to film to the concert hall, Walker has never met a crowd that didn’t love his powerful, “stand and deliver” performances.
Walker and his jazz quartet, Free Flight, have made multiple appearances on The Tonight Show and the Today Show and had a No. 1 record, “Slice of Life.”
In addition, Walker has had studio and concert collaborations with everyone from John Williams and Paul McCartney, to Leonard Bernstein, James Galway and the LA Guitar Quartet.
His career began in 1969 when he was named Associate Principal Flute in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. After eight years with the orchestra, he won the Principal Flute position in the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
After seven successful seasons performing, recording and touring with that orchestra, he left to enter the world of jazz and studio recording.
Since then, Walker has been a first-call studio flutist in Los Angeles’ famed studio scene for almost two decades, and his bold, expressive playing can be heard on hundreds of soundtracks and commercial recordings.
In addition, he has been teaching students for four decades. A native of Greenville, Ky., he is a graduate and a Distinguished Alumnus of the University of Louisville, as well as that university’s first Alumni Fellow from the School of Music. Currently, he is senior lecturer and coordinator of Flute Studies at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music and instructor of flute and chamber music at the Colburn Conservatory of Music.
For more information, see Walker’s website at: http://jimwalkerflute.com/biography.html
For more information about the recital, contact the WVU College of Creative Arts at (304) 293-4359.
-WVU-
CONTACT: Charlene Lattea, College of Creative Arts
304-293-4359, Charlene.Lattea@mail.wvu.edu
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