James Walker
James Walker (1929-2002) was a composer and concert pianist. His music covered most genres, including instrumental, vocal and piano music[1]. He wrote major works for soloists with chorus and orchestra, two one-act operas, and many scores for plays performed by the Royal Shakespeare Company during the 1970s.
Personal life
James Walker was born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, in England, on October 4th 1929. He took up the piano in adolescence, and in 1946, at the age of 17, he started his military service as a musician in the Royal Artillery Band, where he also learned to play the harp. In the early 1950s, he lived and worked as a freelance musician in London, notably as a harpist with the Carl Rosa Opera Company. In 1951, he married Dorothy Muffett, with whom he had two children, Jane in 1956, and Simon in 1959. In 1981, he married Josephine Holmes, with whom he had a son, Thomas. He died in 2002 after a short illness.
Musical career
In 1959, he moved the family to Stratford-Upon-Avon to take up a position in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre Orchestra. Within a few years, the orchestra disbanded, but Walker remained in Stratford-Upon-Avon, which became the base for his career as a concert pianist, arranger and resident pianist at the University of Leicester. With his colleagues, Ken Page (violin) and Oliver Brookes (cello), he founded the Archduke Trio, which was based at the University of Leicester for 30 years. Both as a soloist and an accompanist, he made many recordings in Birmingham that were broadcast on BBC Radio 3[2][3][4]. He retained his links to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and in the 1970s wrote the music for several productions, including Richard II (starring Ian Richardson and Richard Pasco), King John and Cymbeline in 1973-4, followed by Much Ado About Nothing (1976), and The Merchant Of Venice[5] and Love's Labours Lost[6] (1978). He also wrote incidental music to several BBC Radio Drama productions, including Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy[7], and Virginia Woolf's Orlando[8]. As a solo pianist, he performed in theatre anthologies with Judi Dench, Ian Richardson and Michael Williams including The Echoing Green and Flights of Fancy[9], compiled by Roger Pringle.
References
- ↑ "James Walker". British Music Collection. 2009-04-04. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ↑ "Beethoven and James Walker". The Radio Times (3226). 1985-09-12. p. 64. ISSN 0033-8060. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ↑ "Oliver Brookes (cello), James Walker (piano)". The Radio Times (1831). 1958-12-12. p. 20. ISSN 0033-8060. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ↑ "Music Making". The Radio Times (2793). 1977-05-19. p. 34. ISSN 0033-8060. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ↑ "John Barton 1978 and 1981 | The Merchant of Venice | Royal Shakespeare Company". www.rsc.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ↑ "Production of Love's Labour's Lost | Theatricalia". theatricalia.com. Retrieved 2020-11-20.
- ↑ "The Monday Play". The Radio Times (3063). 1982-07-22. p. 31. ISSN 0033-8060. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ↑ "Afternoon Theatre". The Radio Times (3160). 1984-05-31. p. 35. ISSN 0033-8060. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
- ↑ "Search | Archive | Flights of Fancy: The Stratford-upon-Avon Poetry Festival 1983 | Shakespeare Birthplace Trust". collections.shakespeare.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
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