Dr. Walter Saul has distinguished himself as a composer and pianist. His many composition honors include 19 ASCAP awards from 1990-2009, as well as "Composer of the Year" commissions from North Carolina Music Teachers Association in 1986 and from Oregon Music Teachers Association in 1990.

He was also awarded the Burlington Northern Faculty Achievement Awards in Scholarship at Warner Pacific College in 1989 and 1992. In 1998 and 2002, Dr Saul won Warner Pacific College’s Kendall Award for Scholarship. In 1996 and 1999, Dr. Saul was one of ten composers selected to participate in the Ernest Bloch Composers Symposium in Newport, Oregon. Dr. Saul has also received numerous Meet the Composer grants for performances of his works, which have occurred in sixteen states and three nations. As a pianist, Dr. Saul has been heard on radio in four states and has served as clinician and adjudicator throughout the Carolinas and in Oregon and California.

Dr. Saul has performed both books of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Well-tempered Clavier from memory. He presented Book I in recitals in 1975 and Book II in 1997, thereby separating these performances by 22 years, the same amount of time that separated their composition. In a further tribute to Bach, he recently completed From Alpha to Omega, his own volume of 24 preludes and fugues in all major and minor keys, progressing from A major (Alpha) through G# minor (Omega). Three preludes and fugues from this work

have been performed in Carnegie Hall in 2004 and 2009.

          

His biography appears in International Who Who's In Music, Who's Who in Society, Men of Achievement, 5000 Personalities of the World, Dictionary of International Biography, Outstanding People of the 20th Century (2nd edition), and American Keyboard Artists.

 

As a pianist he has performed and presented clinics extensively on the East and West Coasts. He has released three CD’s of his works: Out of Darkness Into His Marvelous Light (1998), From Alpha to Omega (2002), and Songs of Requited Love (2007). His music appears also on a fourth CD, Les flûtes enchantées, and on the Ring of Fire 2001 DVD.

 

Dr. Saul has taught at Eastern Illinois University, Pfeiffer College in Misenheimer, North Carolina, and Warner Pacific College in Portland, Oregon. He presently is Professor of Music at Fresno Pacific University, where he teaches piano, theory, composition, music history, and music appreciation. He resides in Fresno with his wife. They have two married daughters and one grandson.

 

 

 

© 2009 Daphne and Walter Saul

Walter Saul, Biography

Windows of Sonic Light