A gift for the love of his life
By ANGELA PIDDUCK Sunday, June 5 2011
Andre Godwin Walker’s lifelong love affair with music and with his wife of 46 years, Grace Catherine, have combined to bring about the fulfillment of a dream – the
production of a CD album, in which he has combined his love of the voice, harmonica and steelband, to raise funds for his beloved wife’s medical expenses. Walker wa
s seven years old when his now deceased parents, Rose and Andrew Walker, gave him a harmonica as a Christmas gift. His dream to play the harmonica to the accompaniment of steelpan music has at last come true with the CD To A Rose (subtitled: More For The Cure), dedicated to the memory of his late parents, performers in their early years, who with God gave him life, love and some of their talent, a singing voice. This may not have come to pass if his beloved wife, Grace, had not undergone emergency triple by-pass heart surgery while on vacation visiting their children, Gerard, Gregory, Michelle, and seven grandchildren in North America. That surgery has left the couple in dire need of financial help to offset very substantial and economically crippling medical bills. Says Andre, “She is a survivor, still under follow-up care, and yet has duetted with me in two tracks on the album … “The Rosary” and “Thanks To Him”…. For 73 years of my life I either sold or bought tickets, worked, or performed at fundraisers in aid of many causes. Today I am seeking the support of the public through the sale of this album, part proceeds of which will go to various charities.”
While still in primary school, Walker won several talent shows playing his harmonica. His most recent success with voice and harmonica took place at the Mas Camp Pub’s 2011 Father’s Day talent competition, where he won the first prize. The former Customs & Excise Officer took the first steps to achieving his dream to play the harmonica and sing to the accompaniment of steelband music when he did this with the Pamberi Steel Orchestra in a mini recital/concert, titled “The Gift of Sound”, at the Bourg Mulatresse RC Church Parish Hall to celebrate his seventieth birthday. DVDs of this concert, where The Sacred Heart Traditional Choir was guest artiste, are available on order, at fifty dollars each, in aid of the repair/renovation fund of the parish church at Lower Santa Cruz. Born on October 24, 1938, Walker began singing at age seven, and from age 11 to 14 was a member and lead treble soloist for the St Mary’s College Boys’ choir, where he received formal voice training from Father Maiben Cssp (deceased), an Irish tenor and musical director of that choir/orchestra. Walker stopped singing for ten years due to the change of his voice from treble to tenor, at which time he was trained by Dorothy Long and Ena Bocaranda (both deceased), and benefited from the voice coaching services of Kay Boland-Cumberbatch. He then sang with several choirs during the early 1960s through the 1990s, was a member of the San Juan RC Church choir for some 15 years and had a stint with the St Cecilia Choir, under the musical direction of Lucien Edghill (deceased) and also sang for a short while with the Marionettes Chorale and The Chantwell Singers, originally led by Jocelyn Pierre LRCM. Walker has been a member of the Sacred Heart RC Choir for the past 45 years, from which he currently is on sabbatical and with his wife, was part of the Sacred Heart Traditional Choir which in 2003 successfully released its first ever CD Resurrexit. Walker has in the past performed as a solo artiste in several oratorios and concert programmes put on by the late Marie Duprey and Louis Monteil, two former musical directors of the Sacred Heart Traditional Choir. During the 1970s thru 1980s, he was a finalist four times in the tenor and male operatic aria classes of the Trinidad and Tobago Biennial Music Festivals, and in 1973, won the male vocal duet finals class with Ethelbert (Boysie) Bovell. During two years (1996 -1998) of continuing studies as an adult student at American University in Washington DC, USA, the experienced soloist did voice with distinction as an elective for his Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Studies and Business Administration, under the famous Grecian/American voice Professor Anastasio (Tasso) Vrenios. Walker’s lifelong dream “to play my harmonica to the accompaniment of steelpan music has come true in this recording, which is a first time ever unique recording of harmonica accompanied by steelpan.”
