Bruce Walker, Cello
Bruce Walker, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at Columbia Basin College in Pasco, Washington. His responsibilities include teaching courses in Western Music History, second-year Music Theory, Advanced Aural Skills, and serving as the Director of the Columbia Basin College Orchestra. Additionally, he is the Music Director for the Yakima Youth Symphony Orchestra, the Cover Conductor for the Yakima Symphony Orchestra, and the Principal Guest Conductor and Conductor of Preparatory Orchestras for the Oregon East Symphony.
Mr. Walker has previously held the position of Director of Orchestral Activities for the Sunnyside School District in Sunnyside, Washington, was the Conductor for the Kittitas Valley Youth Orchestra, Co-conductor of the Ellensburg Campus-Community Orchestra, the Director of the Central Washington University Music Preparatory Strings Program, and a cello/conducting intern for the Marrowstone Music Festival.
He has participated in some of the finest conducting workshops and music festivals across the United States, including the Marrowstone Music Festival, Pierre Monteux School for Conductors and Orchestral Musicians, various workshops sponsored by the Conductor's Guild, the Astoria Music Festival, the Rose City International Conductor's Workshop, and the University of Oregon Orchestral Conducting Institute. Since 2010, during the summer months, Mr. Walker has also worked as a faculty member with the Youth Excellence on Stage (YES) Academy, in collaboration with American Voices, a U.S. non-governmental, non-profit cultural exchange organization. Through this organization, he has conducted, traveled, and taught in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan.
As an instrumentalist, Mr. Walker remains very active as a solo performer, educator, adjudicator, and orchestral cellist. He has performed as a soloist with the Marrowstone Music Festival Orchestra and the Belleville Philharmonic Orchestra. He has held principal cello positions with the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Orchestra, Marrowstone Music Festival Orchestra, Central Washington University Symphony, Wenatchee Valley Symphony, and the Pierre Monteux School Symphony Orchestra. As a chamber musician, Mr. Walker has won numerous competitions with Trio Giocoso, the DeKalb String Quartet, and the Byron String Quartet. Currently, he is the principal cellist of the Oregon East Symphony (Pendleton, Oregon), a section cellist with the Walla Walla Symphony (Walla Walla, Washington), and an on-call musician for the Mid-Columbia Symphony (Richland, Washington) and Yakima Symphony (Yakima, Washington).
Mr. Walker holds bachelor's degrees in Music Education and Cello Performance from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, as well as master's degrees in Performance, with a focus on Orchestral Conducting and Cello Performance, from Central Washington University. His primary teachers include Kangho Lee and John Michel (cello), Dr. Jeffery Meyer, Michael Jinbo, Dr. Nikolas Caoile, Kenneth Woods, and Lawrence Golan (conducting). When he is not conducting, he enjoys spending time outdoors by his BBQ pit and smoker, creating new dishes for others to sample.