Hal Leonard Corporation
Rick Walters is Vice President of Classical and Vocal Publications at Hal Leonard Corporation, the world's largest print music publisher. The company is also the largest source for classical music publications in the world. He directs publishing, marketing and the business of the division, which includes distribution of G. Schirmer, Boosey & Hawkes, Schott, Henle, Ricordi, Editions Durand, Editions Salabert, Novello, Chester Music, and other publishers, as well as Hal Leonard publications. Walters has conceived and directed G. Schirmer publications, in collaboration with G. Schirmer, for over 20 years, including the new series of masterwork editions for piano, Schirmer Performance Editions. He is editor of many Schirmer publications, including the four-volume G. Schirmer American Aria Anthology, 28 Italian Songs and Arias of the 17th and 18th Centuries, G. Schirmer Collection of American Art Song, and forthcoming new Samuel Barber centennial editions for piano and voice. He also conceives and directs Boosey & Hawkes publications, in collaboration with Boosey & Hawkes, and is editor of Boosey & Hawkes publications such as Benjamin Britten: Complete Folksong Arrangements, Leonard Bernstein: Art Songs and Arias, The Purcell Collection: Realizations by Benjamin Britten, and the forthcoming three-volume Bernstein Theatre Songs. In his work developing and marketing publications for all instruments, Walters has been responsible for a particular renaissance in vocal music publications, including being editor for more than 70 editions in The Vocal Library, a Hal Leonard series, which include editions of Fauré, Schubert, Brahms, Quilter, Strauss, and many collections, such as the standard-bearing Oratorio Anthology, The French Song Anthology, The Lieder Anthology, andthe five-volume Standard Vocal Literature. Walters is editor of the multi-volumed Singer's Musical Theatre Anthology, the world's most trusted and bestselling source on the topic, and many other musical theatre editions. He is also editor of a 30-volume series of piano music, The World's Great Classical Music. As part of his work at Hal Leonard he has produced hundreds of recordings related to publications, and has often been featured as pianist on these recordings.
In addition to music publishing, Walters is a composer with a central interest in writing for the voice. He has cultivated a distinctive art music style of concert arrangement for voice and piano, widely performed by students and professionals, and published in many Hal Leonard Vocal Library collections. His compositions, including nine song cycles, remain largely unpublished. Richard is a versatile musician who has worked as an opera coach, opera director, music director in musical theatre, church musician, lounge pianist, pit musician and author. For many years he has covered the classical scene in Milwaukee as music critic for the state's principal independent weekly newspaper. Walters was educated with a bachelor's degree in piano from Simpson College, where he studied piano and coaching with Robert Larsen. His graduate studies in composition at the University of Minnesota were with Dominick Argento.
