Jay Alan Walls

"Music is a means of communication—a way of touching others more deeply than is possible with mere words.  Yes, sometimes words have inspired me to write.  I have borrowed the Psalms, Dante's sonnets, and even my maternal grandmother's autograph book from the late 1920s, but in each case the narrative is not created with words alone.  Music connects with both intellect and emotion, and conveys ideas, feelings, virtues, collective memories, and the like.  I often seek to make this sort of communication even more meaningful by finding connections with the past and weaving those elements into the fabric of a new work.  From popular songs of my youth embedded in the texture of a saxophone quartet, to melodies for a tango derived from the numbers of Fibonacci's famous series, or even the spirit of discovery and perseverance of Galileo in a work for orchestra (with some of the scientist's brother's lute music tossed in the mix,) those connections enrich our shared experience and embellish the musical story...even without words."

Jay Alan Walls

Jay Alan Walls (b. 1963) speaks a musical language that reflects his broad exposure to classical, jazz and popular idioms.  He received his earliest training in piano and voice in his native city, Columbus, Ohio, and completed studies in vocal/choral music education at Harding University in Arkansas.  At the University of North Texas, where he received a master's and is completing a doctorate, Walls has studied composition with Joseph Klein, Martin Mailman, Andrew May, and Cindy McTee.  His teachers in electro-acoustic music have included Larry Austin, John Mallia, and Phillip Winsor.

A few highlights of Walls’ accomplishments at North Texas include Intimate Strangers, a soundscape for dancers and fixed media, composed in collaboration with dancers from Texas Woman’s University.  Three Sonnets by Dante Alighieri for tenor and piano was premiered at Horchow Auditorium of the Dallas Museum of Art in 2007.  Walls is currently composing L’Occhiale di Galileo, a work for full orchestra celebrating Galileo’s discoveries of the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn in 1609 and 1610.  Walls’ chamber works include Fugal Waltz on a Row by Slonimsky for saxophone quartet, Three Rags for brass trio, Autographs 1928: Four Songs for Soprano and Chamber Ensemble, and Rosa: Tango, selected for performance by the Southern Methodist University String Quartet and presented on a master class with the New York-based string quartet ETHEL.

Walls’ awards in composition include the Outstanding Music Composition Studies Graduate Student Award, the Dean’s Camerata Scholarship, the Richard and Candace Faulk Scholarship, and the David M. Schimmel Memorial Scholarship.  He has taught courses in music and Italian language in Searcy, Arkansas,  in Florence, Italy, and in Houston, Dallas, and Denton, Texas.  Beyond his professional pursuits, Walls enjoys cooking Italian food and spending time with his wife, two children, family and friends, and his church.