Composer’s music to be featured

Well-known composer Gwyneth Walker will be visiting Edwards Church on Sunday, October 23. The choir and I will present several of her compositions.

I first encountered Gwyneth in 1993 when I was playing violin with the Pioneer Valley Symphony. The orchestra performed a piece of hers, and she attended the concert and spoke to the audience. Not only did I enjoy her piece, but I was very impressed with the importance she placed on interacting with the audience.

Several years later I was auditioning to become the conductor of the Old Post Road Orchestra in Wilbraham, and I programmed another one of Gwyneth’s pieces. I also emailed her to let her know how much I enjoyed her music. I never really expected to hear back, but she replied right away and even said that she wanted to attend the concert! I was not offered the job at the Old Post Road Orchestra (what were they thinking?!), but a few months later I became the conductor of the Holyoke Civic Symphony. Over the past 20 seasons I have programmed many of Gwyneth Walker’s compositions and have enjoyed a wonderful collaborative relationship with her. The orchestra has given the New England premieres of several works, and even a couple of world premieres. Another world premiere is coming up on October 23: a piece called Flying Colors, which was written to celebrate the orchestra’s 50th anniversary season.

Since Gwyneth was going to be in Holyoke anyway on October 23, I decided to program some of her pieces at church that morning as well. I’ll be playing several movements from her organ suite Morning Songs, and the choir will be singing her arrangement of Deep Peace and a new anthem called Look to Your Heart. Gwyneth originally wrote Look to Your Heart for solo voice and piano, but later arranged it for choir. It’s a setting of the Anne Sexton poem “Not So, Not So” which has these wonderful lines: “God is not indifferent to your need. You have a thousand prayers, but God has one.”

Please join me in welcoming composer Gwyneth Walker to our worship service on Sunday, October 23.