OPSB.net - Walker Guest Conductor at Arkansas Tech Camp

Mark Walker, Instrumental Music Coordinator of the Ouachita Parish School System served as guest conductor for the Honor Band of the Arkansas Tech University Junior High Music Camps in Russellville, Arkansas for the July 7-12 session.

The Arkansas Tech Camps were begun in 1964 and are among the largest and best known in this part of the country, attracting some 1700 students per year in three one week sessions. The students participate in private study, chamber music, band rehearsals, sectional rehearsals, master classes on their instruments, and elective classes in theory, choral music, color guard and drum major. Mr. Walker conducted the top 65 musicians of the 623 students at the Junior High session. Their performance in Witherspoon Hall on the TECH campus garnered rave reviews. Selections included “Renaissance Festival and Dances” arranged by Bruce Pearson, “Sparks” by Brian Balmages, “Funky Town”, arranged by Johnny Vinson, and “For Our Heroes” by Alan Lee Silva.

“I have known and respected the work of Mr. Walker for many years”, states Hal Cooper, Director of Bands and Band Camp at Arkansas Tech. “The students have improved enormously this week and have learned some terrific new music! We are privileged to have had the services of Mark Walker.”