Rock stars travel the country performing at sold-out stadiums and venues. Their songs are played in movies and become ingrained in popular culture. However, a movie’s background music often goes unnoticed.
Jim Walker is one of those “men behind the scenes.” He has played the flute and similar wind instruments in more than 400 films.
“Everybody goes to the movies so probably anybody who has seen a movie has heard Jim Walker play the flute – they just didn’t know it was him,” said Katherine Borst Jones, vice president of the National Flute Association and Ohio State professor of music.
Tomorrow, Walker will be the special guest at the 22nd Annual Central Ohio Flute Festival.
“He’s like the U2 of flute playing,” said Kimberlee Goodman, a doctoral student in music. “He has had such a long career and has had so much success doing different things.”
Films Walker has performed in include “A Beautiful Mind,” “Titanic,” “A River Runs Through It” and “Ice Age.”
However, Walker is famous in the flute community for being a diverse musician, Jones said.
Besides doing studio work for film companies and being the flute coordinator at the University of Southern California, Walker has also been a member of the U.S. Military Academy Band, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh Philharmonics. He is also a current member of Free Flight, an orchestral and jazz band he began.
Walker said that at the age of 10, his father, a band director, asked him if he wanted to play a flute he had bought in college.
“It certainly wasn’t a big deal. It wasn’t something I had always wanted to do,” Walker said in a phone interview about his first experience with a flute. “It did not feel natural at all in the beginning.”
“I think I was very intrigued by the challenge – I’m kind of an achievement-oriented guy,” Walker said. “I like to succeed in challenges and that probably drove me a lot more than the love of music.”
Of the movies Walker has performed in, he said the more memorable ones include “Nelly,” because he thought the music was beautiful, and “Amistad” because he performed ethnic flute pieces.
When asked if he enjoyed traveling to the 15-20 events he performs at annually, Walker said he likes the spotlight and that it is gratifying people want to listen to his music.
“I grew up in western Kentucky which is not the hub of musical activity in the world,” Walker said juxtaposing his current position in the flute community.
Today, Walker will be participating in a master’s class where he will listen to flautist play and critique students’ work.
“A lot of times you see someone and there is this separation and musicians, especially classical musicians, are known as snobs,” said Clay Hammond, a senior in performance and president of Central Ohio Flute Association at OSU, which co-sponsored the festival along with the School of Music.
“I think when you find out that they are a real person, that when they were an undergrad they did the same thing that you did, that their personality is much like yours,” Hammond said. “It kind of gives you a glimmer of hope.”
