Born in the Los Angeles area in the early sixties, Richard Walker started playing music around age 7. Raised in Santa Barbara until age 9, he enjoyed an immensely varied life and education and has characterized the haphazard lifestyle of his parents as “pseudo-bohemian.” Some of the hair-raising tales he can tell include life as a child of religious cultists, playing music in the streets for money, and attendance at a Roman Catholic school in a small village on the island of Majorca, Spain.
Robert Sheldon
Richard considers music to be quite literally his salvation, providing the only escape from occasional isolation and poverty. Starting with recorder and flute, he went on to study piano at the late age of 16. Fortunately, he found inspiration and guidance in his mentor, the late Robert Sheldon, who he found through the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and with whom he pursued intensive study in piano performance and interpretation for over a decade.
Sheldon was a student of the revered Egon Petri, one of the last century’s greatest pianists, who also provided a direct link to the grand masters Ferruccio Busoni and Franz Liszt. In 2009 Richard won a small legal battle and rescued a rare photo of Petri from a Polish music magazine, and placed it firmly in the public domain(thanks are due to Stefan Kutrzeba.)
Musical projects
After living in Spain for several years and in England and France for shorter periods, Richard finally settled in the Bay Area in 1981. He has worked as a soloist, ensemble player and accompanist, has produced many concerts and in 2002 completed his third CD release, his second CD of improvised compositions. His first book, The Performing Pianist, a Pocket Primer was printed in its first edition in the summer of 2002. In 2003 Richard co-produced a two-disc set of Ragtime recordings for a Bay Area pianist and prepared a new edition of the posthumous piece Navarra by Isaac Albéniz.
In 2004 his piano composition Nocturne was selected for use in the independent film The Savant by the film’s producer and director, Robert Elvin. Richard contributed custom audio effects and incidental sound for the film using classical and avant-garde techniques, and assisted Mr. Elvin with noise reduction solutions for various location sound problems.
Wikipedia biography for Sarah Cahill
In 2007 Richard discovered that local pianist and radio host Sarah Cahill didn’t have a Wikipedia entry, so he decided to become a Wikipedia contributor. After learning a lot about hot-button issues such as notability requirements for biographies of living persons, he made a first draft, requested an Editor’s Review, and finished up in December of 2008. Here’s the biography, the change log, and additional comments about the process. Since his last edit, only 3 or 4 minor changes have been made, so he feels comfortable with the Wikipedia community and knows when to ask for help.
Other training
Richard’s education also includes many years of alternative schooling and tutoring, private music lessons, as well as traditional music training at Neighborhood Music School (New Haven, Connecticut) Portslade Community College (Sussex, U.K.) and City College of San Francisco.