Biography

Alicia W. Walker is Director of Choral Studies at the University of South Carolina, where she directs the Concert Choir and the UofSC TTBB Choir, and supervises the graduate conducting program. Each year Dr. Walker travels to South Africa to teach continuing education for choral directors, and she is regularly invited to conduct and teach in England and in Taiwan.  Hailed as a “dynamo on the podium,” Dr. Walker made her conducting debuts at Carnegie Hall in 2015, and at Lincoln Center in 2019. Her choirs have been selected to perform for SCMEA and for South Carolina’s ACDA conference. Dr. Walker’s pedagogy and professional interactions are marked by a commitment to excellence, collaboration, and inclusion.

An experienced music educator, Dr. Walker taught at the elementary, middle and high school levels, followed by appointments at the University of Georgia and the University of South Carolina, where she supervised Secondary Choral Music Education. She is a Past President of Southern Region ACDA and Georgia ACDA, and she developed ChorTransform, ACDA’s service-learning initiative for student chapters.  Her focus on professional mentoring led Dr. Walker to found Facets,™ a leadership retreat for women conductors. In Columbia, she conducts a chamber choir of music educators called Limited Time Only, and she maintains an active schedule as a guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. A long-time church musician, Dr. Walker has served churches in Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, and South Carolina, and she presently conducts the Chancel Choir at Shandon Presbyterian Church. She was a committee chair for the development of Celebrating Grace, a hymnal published in 2010, and is a contributing author for Sacred Choral Music Repertoire: Insight for Conductors. Dr. Walker was guest editor of the February 2021 Choral Journal, ACDA’s focus issue on pedagogy.  Her research interests include conducting pedagogy, service-learning, and choral composers of the English Musical Renaissance.  She is a Life Member of ACDA, and holds memberships in NAfME and NCCO (national board member 2018-2021).  Alicia lives in Columbia with her husband, Robert.  They have two adult sons, Aaron and Levi.

Download Alicia’s biography and headshot.