Zimbabwe: Walker Looks Forward to Piano Recitals

 

 

 

Zimbabwe: Walker Looks Forward to Piano Recitals

The Herald (Harare)

February 14, 2007
Posted to the web February 14, 2007

Joel White
Harare

 

AFTER more than seven decades of enjoying the prodigious and vastly prolific output of music by the composers -- Franz Schubert and Frederic Chopin -- it was only on Sunday evening that I learnt of their tragically short life spans.

Schubert died in 1828, not yet 31 years of age while Chopin died in 1849, not yet 40. Leading me, as I always do in such situations, to speculate on what they might have produced -- and I might have enjoyed -- it they had had a normal life span.

But several specimens of what they DID produce were presented for our thorough enjoyment by the Kariba-born (and now international) pianist Michael Brownlee Walker. The venue was the Harare International School, which will hereafter be the regular setting for presentations by Harare's Celebrity Subscription Concerts.

Michael Brownlee Walker is a further example of an artist who had his talent nurtured here -- both in Bulawayo and Harare -- to go on to find international acclaim in the wider world, principally Britain, which is now his base.

As a pianist and also accompanist all-round Britain, he has brought to the attention of his listeners the possibility of a musical education to far-off Zimbabwe.

Michael, at 30 years of age, is now looking forward this year to the piano recitals he will give on cruises around the Mediterranean and the Baltic. Imagine: "Doing exactly what you want to do and exotic sailing around the world while you do it!"

A packed and deeply appreciative audience warmly received Michael's popular offerings in the highly-raked tiers of the International School's auditorium.

I, for one, thoroughly appreciated Michael Walker's choice of well-known solo piano pieces. From the instrument's melodic repertoire we heard the Four Impromptus of Franz Schubert; the Valses Brillantes by Frederic Chopin; Valse Impromptu of Franz Liszt; and Edward Grieg's Lyric Pieces.

Born in Kariba, Michael's primary education was at R.E.P.S, Amandas and Barwick schools. Early piano lessons at primary level took on a serious cast at Plumtree School in 1990, under the guidance of Felix Westwood. Later, he benefited from his association and tutelage from Derek Hudson, Pat Pearce, John Hodgson and Britain's Leslie Howard.

Michael has won awards virtually too numerous to list, and these for one so young, are harbingers of the notable fame both he and Zimbabwe will reap in the years ahead.