Dr. Walter W. Schurr Biography
Dr. Walter W. Schurr is the Director of Music at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Arizona, where he plays the organ and directs the Sanctuary Choir and all the handbell choirs.
Born in Annapolis, Maryland, Billy, as he is called, and his sister were raised as musicians as a result of their father's love for music. First known as a singer in the Baltimore–Annapolis area, Billy performed publicly in early childhood, singing on stage and performing on his own weekly radio show. At age 11, he accepted his first job as a church organist (at Baldwin Memorial United Methodist Church in Millersville, Maryland) and also began studying piano and voice at The Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. At 13, he sang in Verdi's Tosca with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and the starring role in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitor with The Peabody Conservatory's "Little Orchestra." By 15, he was teaching piano and performing as a concert pianist. He then began studying composition and orchestration, and at age 16 he completed his first major work, a Christmas cantata for choir, orchestra, and organ. This work was first performed at Harundale Presbyterian Church, Glen Burnie, Maryland, in 1956.
Since that time, Dr. Schurr has composed and arranged a vast amount of literature for choir and instrumental ensembles, keyboard, and handbells, and has had music listed with more than a dozen traditional music publishers. He also developed a method for training multilevel handbell choirs. Now a recognized innovator of music and worship alternatives, Dr. Schurr is in demand nationwide as a choral workshop leader and composer of commissioned works for choir and instruments.
He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in piano performance with a minor in organ performance from The Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, and was awarded his Ph.D. in musicology by The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He has served on the faculty at both institutions, teaching piano and musicology. Additionally, for many years he was a leading musicologist specializing in Italian music theory of the late Baroque, and is the author of several articles in Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians.
From 1998-2002, Dr. Schurr served as Director of Music Ministries at Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church in San Diego, California. Prior to that, he was the Director of Music and Organist at Dumfries United Methodist Church, in Dumfries, Virginia, and Minister of Music/Artist in Residence at Crescent Avenue Presbyterian Church in Plainfield, New Jersey, where he directed the Crescent Concert Series. His background includes positions at the U.S. Army Chapel Center at Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park, Maryland; Harundale Presbyterian Church in Glen Burnie, Maryland; and North Severn Naval Chapel in Annapolis.
Billy and his wife, Carol, also a musician, have two grown daughters. Holly is a classical violinist and percussionist, and plays in Tucson's professional steel band "Apocalypso." Kelly is a French hornist who lives and works in the Chicago area.