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John Walker
A renowned concert organist, John Walker has performed throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. On several occasions he has performed at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and also at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, as well as other cathedrals and churches in England, France, Holland, Switzerland, and Sweden. In Taiwan he has performed frequently as recitalist at the National Concert Hall in Taipei and as soloist with the National Symphony Orchestra. He has been featured at the national convention of the Korean Association of Organists, presenting hymn festivals, recitals, and workshops in Seoul. John Walker has appeared frequently with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas, even sharing concert billing with the Grateful Dead.
Currently Director of Music and Organist at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church in Baltimore, John Walker also held distinguished positions at Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh and The Riverside Church in New York City. His faculty appointments have included Duquesne University, Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, and Manhattan School of Music, where he was chair of the organ department. His students have won performance competitions, and they hold major musical positions throughout the U.S.
John Walker earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Stanford University, and he holds double master’s degrees with honors from the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, where he has also been a faculty member. He received the Alumni Award for Professional Accomplishment from Westminster College in 1984. He is a Fellow of the American Guild of Organists and was the first director of a task force established by the Guild to address the critical and growing shortage of young organists. This task force conceived and implemented the highly successful Pipe Organ Encounters which now occur annually throughout North America. As a Fulbright Fellow, John Walker spent the autumn semester of 1999 teaching and performing in Taiwan.
John Walker joins current faculty Donald Sutherland and Distinguished Visiting Artist Dame Gillian Weir in the Peabody organ department.
