DIRECTOR

R. WAYNE WALTERS is a well-known New Jersey musician who sings, composes, and conducts in the Morris area and beyond.

Mr. Walters is the founder, conductor, and music director of the Morris Choral Society of Morristown, New Jersey, now in its 34th year. The chorus of 85 singers performs locally throughout the concert season and has toured England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Italy, The Czech Republic, and Poland. In December of 2005 and again in 2006 Mr. Walters was selected as one of the conductors for the New York Choral Society's annual Messiah Sing-in in Avery Fisher Hall. For the Morris Choral Society's 2007 concert season, the chorus will include the premier performance of the Walters Requiem Mass in D-minor along with the Bernstein Chichester Psalms. In July, 2007, Mr. Walters will conduct the chorus on a concert tour of Germany and Austria.

As a composer of both choral and instrumental music, Mr. Walters was granted a fellowship by the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation to compose a set of choral motets with woodwinds which he titled The Dodge Motets. In addition, he has composed several choral art songs, two suites for symphonic winds, a set of liturgical responses for Protestant Worship, Shabbat Hodaah, a setting of the Friday Evening Liturgy for the Reformed Synagogue, a Dedication Mass for chorus, soloists, and orchestra, and most recently, the Requiem Mass in D-minor for chorus, soloists, and orchestra.

After graduation from Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania with a B.S. degree in Music Education, Mr. Walters was granted a graduate voice scholarship by the Juilliard School, where he was a student of the renowned coach and music editor, Sergius Kagen. He earned an M.A. degree in voice and conducting at the College of New Jersey in Trenton.

As a professional bass-baritone, Mr. Walters has performed in concert, recital, oratorio, opera, and musical comedy throughout Europe and the Eastern United States, and with musical organizations including the Wyoming Valley Oratorio Society, the New Shrewsbury Choral, The University Men's Glee Club of New York, The New Philharmonic Orchestra, Summit Symphony, Montclair Civic Chorus and Orchestra, Princeton Opera Theater, Sussex Symphony and Lyric Opera Company, and the College of New Jersey Opera Workshop. Mr. Walters sang the bass solos in Verdi's Requiem with the original Masterwork Chorus under David Randolph, and made his Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center debuts in Handel's Messiah with the same chorus and conductor. He was soloist with The St. Cecilia Chorus in Schubert's Mass No. 6 at the Church of The Heavenly Rest in New York City, and returned for a performance of Gounod's Messe Solennelle and Saint-Saens' Requiem. He was soloist for Bach's Mass In B Minor with the choir of Christ Church in East Orange, New Jersey, and in May of 2005 he was invited to perform with The Pastoral Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Sean Kao in Carnegie Hall. He recently appeared in a faculty voice recital at the College of St. Elizabeth and released a CD of that performance titled "In Recital."

Mr. Walters was a music educator in the New Jersey Public Schools for thirty-six years, a member of the faculty of Fairleigh Dickenson University and the Encore Music Camp at Wilkes University in PA. He was theory instructor and director of choruses at Morristown High School, and was a guest conductor for the New Jersey School Music Association. In 1986 he was selected as Master Choral Music Teacher by the NJ Music Educators Association. He received The Governor's Award for excellence in the "Arts In Education Program" in New Jersey. Mr. Walters achieved national recognition as one of eight educators selected to participate in the filming of Craft And Joy In Teaching, a videotape for teacher training in American Colleges and Universities, made possible through The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. In 2001 Mr. Walters was recognized by the Arts Council of the Morris Area as "Outstanding Professional in the Arts." Mr. Walters is instructor of voice and adjunct professor of music at the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morristown. Wayne and his wife, Ann, live in Randolph, New Jersey.