Walker recently retired as Distinguished Service Professor of Music and Director of Instrumental Activities at the State University of New York at Geneseo.
He holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin and Harvard University. At the age of 22, he became the youngest conductor of a major university ensemble when he was appointed to the Harvard Faculty as Conductor of the Harvard University Bands. During his ten years at Harvard he founded the Harvard Wind Ensemble, was Conductor of the Freshman Glee Club and the Harvard Chorus, and Associate Conductor at the New England Conservatory. His work at the New England Conservatory included preparation of choral forces for Carmina Burana – Orff, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Seiji Ozawa, Conductor and Song of the Nightingale and Oedipus Rex – Stravinsky, with the New England Conservatory Orchestra and Opera Department, Gunther Schuller Conductor.
Guest conducting appearances include the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble and Chorus, the University of Victoria Symphony, and Choral Society, and the Victoria Conservatory Orchestra. He has conducted in Carnegie Hall, New York; Severence Hall, Cleveland; the Eastman Theater, Rochester and Jordan Hall, Boston.
He studied composition with Milton Rusch, Leon Kirchner, Roger Sessions and Billy Jim Layton. His choral and chamber works have been performed throughout the United States and Canada. He has several articles on wind music in the second edition of the Harvard Dictionary of Music, Willi Apel, editor, and has received several grants from the State University Research Foundation and commissions from the Ohio Music Education Association, the Kronos and the Tremont String Quartets.
He has been Conductor and Music Director of the Chautauqua School of Music Orchestra, Conductor and Music Director of the University of Rochester Symphony, Conductor, Music Director of the University of Victoria Orchestra and Chorus, Conductor and Music Director of the Elmira Symphony and Choral Society, Conductor of the Brockport Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and Conductor and Music Director of the Friends of Music Orchestra; positions he held concurrently with his other teaching and conducting responsibilities at the State University of New York at Geneseo.