Faculty of the Week: Jerome Walker

By: Tania Rana, Vibha Uday, Clark Wu

If you ask anyone who knows Choral Assistant Intern Jerome Walker, they’ll tell you that his laugh, his energy and his empathy are contagious. 

From a young age, Walker looked up to his educators. “Our family always regarded teachers highly and recognized the importance of education in ourselves and in our democracy,” Walker said. “I was also fortunate enough to have many teachers of my own that I really had a lot of love for.”

One of them was John Touchton, Walker’s high school chorus teacher. “I loved him so much. He made our chorus his life,” Walker said. “We had a full chorus that had about 90 people in it and everyone in the chorus loved him. He made everyone feel like they were having a great time in the room. And I just thought that was incredible… I would love to be able to do that.” And so Walker was set on a path of music. 

Walker’s passion and talent for music stood out when he applied to be an intern at the Academy. Since their first meeting, Chair of the Department of Music and Instructor in Choral Music Kristofer Johnson was fascinated by Walker’s compositions and musical tastes. 

“It’s a little rare to find someone that you have an enormous rapport with… that in some ways you speak the same language, but you also challenge each other, offer each other wildly different perspectives, different tastes, different life experiences,” Johnson said. “And it just seemed that I would learn as much from Mr. Walker, as I hope that he would learn from me working with the choirs at Exeter.”

Arriving at the Academy, however, presented challenges. “As someone new to the community, it’s very hard to find your place,” Walker said. “You know, everyone else has been here for 25 years and you start to question how you fit in.”

“Exeter is a really old place and it has a lot of traditions. I don’t think we, as people or as a society, are served by following a tradition for tradition’s sake,” Walker continued. “There are things that Exeter really holds onto because it feels dear to the people here. It certainly has rewarding elements, but I don’t know that it always serves us the best. I don't know that it’s always serving our students, in the world that we live in, the best.”

As Johnson expected, Walker’s insights and perspectives proved an amazing addition to the Department of Music at Exeter. “He is a young musician, but he is in some ways wise way beyond his years. He’s been a real gift, and he’s going to leave a lasting legacy for us in the music department,” Johnson said.

“Mr. Walker brings his spirit, energy and a sense of joy to Exeter. He cares. He cares about his students and he cares about his colleagues across campus,” Music Program Administrator Barbara Darby added. “And, he has a great laugh.” 

Walker reciprocates the music department’s love. “I have to make this optimization problem work—the music needs to be appropriate for the ensemble but also hold some excitement and beauty,” Walker said. “It really made me think. What are the pieces that I like? Why do I like them? What do I like about them?”

“I almost am unlearning the ritual or the exactness of the formula of ‘Here’s how we look at a new piece’ because it is more effective to be able to be alive in the moment,” Walker said.

Walker’s compassion brought a unique caring and positive energy to Exonians. “He makes it so that you want to show up, even if you were feeling really, really down and tired and sick,” upper Alexander Luque said. “You don’t want to miss his class because it’s probably the best part of your day.”

“I keep saying this— you can’t have a bad day around Mr. Walker,” Luque added. “He’s my teacher, but I like to think of him as a mentor. And hopefully he thinks of me as a friend.”

This winter, Walker is directing What Comes Next, a musical he co-wrote as part of his senior thesis at Yale. “I’m sure that the folks in the cast are getting a little tired of me,” Walker said. “I'll be playing some of the music and I'm like, this is good. I like this. I mean, of course I like it. I wrote it.”

“But in all seriousness, the pieces in What Comes Next are music I wrote,” Walker said. “99 out of the 100 times that I’ve heard it, it’s been me in a practice room singing on a voice memo to my phone. But now every Monday and Thursday I get to hear someone else sing it in their voice, bring something new to it, a new style, a new interpretation. And often the correct register for the first time. It feels amazing to see it realized in this way. We’ve got such talented folks doing it.”

Senior Stephen McNulty, a singer in both the Musical and Concert Choir, finds Walker to be “an incredible vocalist (with an astonishing range), a very patient teacher always willing to pop out into a practice room to work on a piece, and an incredible composer.” “I have the soundtrack to What Comes Next stuck in my head as we speak,” McNulty said.

To Walker, the most rewarding part of teaching is growing with his students. “When I’m in class and talking about music I’m really familiar with, there’s always someone looking at it with fresh eyes. And they bring up something I’ve never thought of before. That feels incredible. I’ve learned so much from these interactions,” Walker said.

“Even more than this, I love to be in the building when people are running around and it's like someone’s having the most dramatic day of their life. You know, in eight months this day will be another blip on their radar,” Walker said. “I honestly enjoy being a part of the lives of students in general.”

Walker praised Exeter on its supportive environment. “We encourage people to pursue the things that they enjoy. High school is an age when you can do stuff because you enjoy it or want to try it out or because you’ve never done it before. You don’t have to get locked in. Even if you never sing again in your life, you’re still great, and you still bring great stuff to the room and have a great time.”

At Exeter, Walker certainly enjoys life to the fullest. If you can’t find him in the music building, there’s a good chance he’s feasting on candy at Grill. “We’d go to Grill and get crazy sugary candy to share,” Johnson said. “Sometimes he’d have to remind himself, ‘Oh right, I should eat other food.’”

Walker wants to keep living in the moment, and hopes to leave some of this spirit at Exeter. “I am not particularly one for plans,” Walker said. “I have always done what felt right in the moment and gone in the direction that just felt the best in the moment. It brought me to Exeter and I’m really happy here. I hope that it continues to serve me well.”