Walter’s career as a drum set artist started early in life, and is rooted in the church. His parents, Minister Walter, Jr. and Leanda Turner raised their family of 6 in Houston, TX, centering him in the gospel music of their church. He and his siblings were enrolled in a music school when Walter was 8 years old. When his sister chose the piano and his brother chose guitar, it was up to Walter to pick up the drumsticks. By the time Walter was 11 years old he was playing full time in his church’s choir. Through his years in school Walter continued to grow as a percussionist. He was asked to play drum set in the High School Jazz Choir while he was still in 8th grade, attended Summer Jazz Workshops, and performed in the Marching Band as a snare drummer. He held leadership positions in all of these ensembles, and started a strong foundation as a leader in all aspects of his life. He also performed in numerous Solo competitions, consistently receiving the highest ratings possible. Walter toured and performed for 4 years in multiple drum and bugle corps across the country. Drum and bugle corps is a very high intensity activity requiring acute focus, steadfast discipline, and the ability to adapt and play in an extremely large ensemble. Walter gained extensive knowledge and experience applicable to his career as a musician, as well as life itself. Punctuality, responsibility, accountability, and integrity are the founding principles that Walter learned to embrace in the drum corps activity, and now bases his life approach on. Walter studied for two years at the University of Houston in the Moore’s School of Music as a Music Education Major. He gained classical knowledge in concert percussion, studying on marimba, timpani, concert snare, vibraphone, hand drums, and auxiliary percussion. He also instructed several local High School bands while pursuing his degree, as well as teaching private lessons. In 2004, Walter participated in the Guitar Center Drum Off. The drum off is an annual national competition that showcases drum set players. He advanced through 5 levels of competition, beating out over 300 other drummers to compete at the National Finals at the Wiltern Theatre in Los Angeles. He was recognized as one of the top 6 undiscovered drummers in the nation. For his junior year in college, Walter transferred to the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. After realizing that a career as a professional musician was his true path, he changed his major to Drum Set Performance and has been developing his career ever since. He performed as a student accompanist with Sheila E., in the Gospel Choir, Pat Metheny Ensembles, and Dave Fiuczynski’s ensembles. He has been recognized for several awards at Berklee, including the Roy Haynes percussionist scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to percussionists who have the strongest potential to further the music industry with their talent. Walter has played in many ensembles and bands in the Boston area, including Rebel and the Universal Truth, Mike Maven and the Goodlife, and The Nico Alzetta Group. He has extensive experience in all styles of music including classical, musical theatre, jazz, fusion, R&B, rock, pop, all latin styles, hip hop, country, and gospel. He continues to challenge himself as a musician, recently learning to play bass guitar. His diversity, passion, and drive to succeed are his greatest assets as a musician. Music is a major part of who he is, and he plans to follow his dream wherever the path may lead. I'm pretty quiet most of the time and I like to keep to myself. I'm kinda shy actually...but, don't tell anybody I told you....lol.
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