Alicia W. Walker has been named director of choral studies. In her prior position as associate director of choral studies at UofSC, Walker has directed the University Chorus and the USC Men’s Chorus, and teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in conducting and music education.

Tayloe Harding, School of Music Dean said, "Alicia was and is a magnificent choice and an overwhelming selection from every constituency involved. She starts her duties this summer."

Dr. Walker holds degrees from Florida State University, Southern Seminary, and the University of Georgia. An experienced music educator, she taught at the elementary, middle, and high school levels prior to joining the music education faculty at the University of Georgia. She made her conducting debut at Carnegie Hall in 2015, and conducts at Lincoln Center in 2019. Her choirs have been selected to perform for SCMEA and for South Carolina’s ACDA conference.

Each year Dr. Walker travels to South Africa to teach continuing education for choral directors, and in 2017-18 she taught and conducted in Taiwan and in England. 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 commitment to 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, a resource to be published by GIA in 2019. She is a Life Member of ACDA, and holds memberships in NAfME and NCCO.