Talented Jamaican violinist Gabriel Walters is at it again. The youngster is again making moves to pursue postgraduate studies and is hosting a live performance on Sunday, July 17 to assist with raising the finances to fund this venture.

The event, dubbed Echoes of Harmony 2, will be staged at the Church of the Ascension in Mona, St Andrew. This performance will be recorded for a ‘pay-per-view’ broadcast one week later, on July 24, with showings at 12 noon and 5:00 pm local time.

The concert will feature Walters on violin, Stephen Shaw Naar on piano and the Accel String Quartet which Walters founded in 2019.

“We will be featuring pieces of music and composers that I have taken a liking to over the years including the works of tango composer Astor Pizolla, as well as my own compositions. My works will included The Xaymaca Suite which is five short pieces for violin and piano depicting different aspects of Jamaican life. It opens with Royal Port which is all about the pirates in Port Royal, then Sunshine Dance; a slow waltz called Evening Time; Keraya — which is the Taino word for moon; and then it closes with Mango Dance,” Walters told the Jamaica Observer.

“Persons who attend the live show, of catch it where ever they are in the world on the virtual platform will get the opportunity to experience my joy for music and why it is that I truly want to further my studies,” he added.

This is not the first time Walters has tried to raise funds to further his studies. Last year Walters fell short of the £30,000 required for tuition to enrol in the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, United Kingdom. This forced him to defer his acceptance.

After consideration, Walters has decided to opt for the Master’s in Music Performance and Pedagogy at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St Johns, Canada.

“When I didn’t make it to the UK last year I started looking at options. I reached out to a teacher at this university, started some classes and I have seen significant improvements in my playing. The cost of tuition is much more affordable that the European universities, so I decided on this one. I am in a much better position to afford tuition considering that I have received a scholarship which covers a portion. So I am more confident that I will make it this time compared to last year,” he said.

Walters has been playing the violin since the age of seven. For the past few years, he has represented Jamaica at the international level, being the first Jamaican to perform with the Orchestra of the Americas (formerly Youth Orchestra of the Americas) in 2014 and L’Orchestre de la Francophonie in 2017. He is the associate concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Jamaica and the concertmaster of The University of the West Indies Classical and Jazz Ensemble (UWI CAJE). In addition, he also teaches music and plays the violin at the National Youth Orchestra of Jamaica (NYOJ).