Music News - A New Face
by Neal Campbell
We are happy to announce the appointment to our music staff of Charles Dodsley Walker, Artist-in-Residence.
Charles Dodsley Walker is joining St. Luke’s music team as Artist-in-Residence. Charlie, as he prefers to be called, comes to us from Trinity Church in Southport where he has been the Organist and Choirmaster since 1988. Since the age of ten when he was a choirboy at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine in New York he has been active in the church music life of New York. After graduation from Trinity School in New York, he continued his musical studies at Trinity College, Hartford, where his organ teacher was Clarence Watters. Graduate studies at Harvard University were interrupted by four years' service in the Navy, where he participated in the Sicilian and Okinawan campaigns before being released with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Returning to Harvard, he received the A.M. degree and the certificate of Fellow of the American Guild of Organists (F.A.G.O.).
For three years Charlie was Organist and Choirmaster of the American Cathedral in Paris, where he organized a series of recitals on the Cathedral's magnificent Cavaille-Coll organ, presenting such artists as Marcel Dupré, André Marchal, Olivier Messiaen, Jean Langlais and Maurice Duruflé. He also made his debut as an orchestral conductor in Paris, performing works for chorus and orchestra with the Cathedral choir and members of the Lamoureux orchestra. During his years in Europe, he appeared as organ recitalist in Germany, Switzerland and Italy, as well as in France. With Janet Hayes Walker, soprano, (his late wife) he made three tours of Germany under the auspices of the U. S. Department of State, performing in forty cities in West Germany.
In 1951 he was called to be the Organist and Choirmaster of the Church of the Heavenly Rest, Fifth Avenue and 90th Street, in New York, and served that church for 38 years until his move to Southport. At Heavenly Rest he founded (and still directs) the Canterbury Choral Society, which since 1952 has been presenting large-scale performances of sacred choral masterpieces with full orchestra. In addition to the standard choral repertoire of oratorios, masses, requiems, and passions, the Canterbury Choral Society has presented many performances involving staging, costumes, special lighting and choreography. These have included, besides the frequently-performed Britten Noye's Fludde and Honegger King David, rarely-performed works such as Debussy's Le Martyre de Saint Sebastien and Honegger's Joan of Arc at the Stake—the latter starring Glenn Close and William Hurt.
The Canterbury Choral Society has made a specialty of including children in its presentations, and during the last two decades has given concerts with large children's choruses in Avery Fisher Hall and Carnegie Hall, presenting such works as Handel's Samson, Berlioz' Te Deum, Britten's Saint Nicolas, and Mahler's Eighth Symphony. Charlie Walker has conducted Mahler's Eighth Symphony six times at 5-year intervals—three times in Avery Fisher Hall and three times in Carnegie Hall, each time with 600 or more participants. On November 9 of this year, he will again conduct the Mahler Eighth—also known as the Symphony of a Thousand because of the large forces required—in Carnegie Hall and it is our hope that children from St. Luke’s choirs will participate with several other area children’s choirs in the Knabenchor. [see the related article in Tidings.]
For over twenty-five years, Charlie was a member of the National Council of the American Guild of Organists, serving for four years as National President. In the educational field, he has taught children at the secondary level, serving as head of the music departments of Trinity School, the Kew-Forest School, and the Chapin School. He has also taught at New York University, Union Theological Seminary, and at the Manhattan School of Music.
He is also an expert on Gilbert and Sullivan, having conducted each of the thirteen G & S operas in full productions with orchestra at least twice during his 35-year tenure as music director of the Blue Hill Troupe of New York. He was for ten years Dean and Music Director of the Berkshire Choral Institute in Sheffield, Massachusetts, a summer institution which has achieved international recognition among lovers of choral music.
Upon assuming his position at Trinity Church in Southport, he created a Junior Choir which sings regularly at services and presents an annual Gilbert and Sullivan opera each Spring, and trained the Trinity Choristers to sing the with Adult Choir weekly and on principal Holy Days. In addition, he conducted a community chorus known as the Trinity Chorale which presented its own season of major works with full orchestra.
Charlie is indeed one of the great elder statesmen of church music and I am thrilled that he has accepted our invitation to work among us. In addition to lending his valuable artistic advice, the weekly and seasonal church calendar will see Charlie assisting as organist and conductor, beginning this summer while I am on vacation.
I know that you will all want to welcome Charlie and his wife Lise in our midst.
