Dick Walter

After graduating in History and Psychology from Nottingham University Dick started working for BBC Radio and Television, writing arrangements and compositions for all the BBC Radio Orchestras, and working as arranger on a wide selection of classic light entertainment TV shows: The Two Ronnies, Morecombe & Wise, Seaside Special, Tommy Cooper, The Generation Game, Marti Caine, and many others, as well as composing for drama productions for BBC TV, Scottish TV and Granada. He has composed the music for many TV commercials: the long-running Yellow Pages campaign, (starting with the classic J R Hartley film), award winners for British Airways, Tabasco, Heineken and Benson & Hedges, as well as director Adrian Lynne’s two-and-a-half minute film for the launch of Ford Capri. He composed the music for all of director Alan Parker’s commercials. He also arranged the music for several classic campaigns, notably Hovis, (voted the UK’s favourite TV ad), and the original Wall’s Cornetto. He has composed over twenty albums for the KPM Recorded Music Library, covering many genres: Town and Country, Pure Big Band, Essential Brass Band, The Romantic Album, and three CDs of original songs: Classic Sounds & Classic Songs. His most recent project for KPM, (released 2007), was a double CD: Jazz Anthology. His Arts Council commissions include a number of pieces for UK Arts Festivals: White Lies the Moon for the A E Housman Centenary, Excursions for Baritone Saxophone and String Quartet, and a Royal Academy of Music commissioned premier for the 2003 Harp Showcase. His jazz pieces have been featured on his two critically acclaimed CDs: Secret Moves, (of which The Guardian wrote, “Dick Walter has forgotten more than other composer/arrangers ever knew”), and Capricorn Rising, the latter being recommended in The Observer’s “CDs of the year”. He was a nominee for Jazz Arranger of the Year, 2001. In 2008 he finished work on We’ve Got a Show!, an original piece with book-writer Erik Wilcock. From 1998-2005 he was Head of Media & Applied Music at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where he still gives seminars as Visiting Professor in Composition. From 2006-2008 he was Chair of the Academic Board at the London Centre for Contemporary Music, and in 2008 was an External Assessor for Middlesex University. He is a member of BAFTA, D&AD, MMD and was made an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy in 2000. For information on Dick, his music and much more please visit http://www.dickwalter.com Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.