Gregory T.S. Walker (born October 19, 1961) is an American composer, violinist, and guitarist. He was the recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Fellowship in 2000,[1] and has performed with major orchestras around the world.
Walker is the son of music historian Helen Walker-Hill[2] and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker.[3] He studied with violinist Yuval Yaron[4] and received a master's degree in computer music from the University of California at San Diego, and a doctorate in musical composition from the University of Colorado. Walker currently serves as a professor at the University of Colorado Denver.[5] An accomplished composer and violinist, he performed his Concerto No. 1 for Orchestra and Synthesizer with the Oakland Sinfonietta[6] and earned a second master's in composition from Mills College in 1987. In 1993, the Colorado Symphony commissioned Walker to compose what has been acknowledged as the first "rap symphony", Dream N. the Hood.[7]
Walker's work as a multimedia performance artist has been showcased at the Sonic Circuits International Festival and the New West Electronic Arts & Media Organization Festival (NWEAMO),[16] and he is featured on the cover of the April 2007 International Musician magazine.[17] He is currently the Artistic Director of the Colorado NeXt Music Festival.[18]