Teacher Profile: Les Walker

About Les Walker

Born in Brooklyn, New York Les Walker began playing piano, organ and keyboards by ear with help from musicians at Durham Zion Church in New York at the age of 9. He enjoyed the choir harmonies and the sounds of the music he heard.

At age 12, he began to study at the Vroinides conservatory of Music in Babylon NY. He studied their with Helen Vrionides who taught him piano and organ. There he studied classical music and become fond of Back, Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner. Later, he played for various churches beginning at age 14 eventually becoming a minister of music.

He discovered jazz in high school and immediately fell in love eventually earning a degree in commercial jazz from Five Towns College in Dix Hills, Long Island, New York. While learning and evolving, he spent a lot of time exploring various genres of music and perfecting his talents. During this time, Les was given the opportunity to play one of his first loves; Reggae music.

Leslie relocated to Florida in 2001 and in addition to teaching plays with a number of jazz, reggae, and R&B bands including co-founding his latest project; Slow Burner, a studio jazz fusion band.

Les feels teaching piano and keyboards to students is a way to give back to what music gave him. He teaches his students they can relax and enjoy music while playing it. During lessons Les teaches students to focus on Rhythm, Harmony, and Consistency is practice as these are his core teaching principals. He believes that finding a students strengths and feeding into them with positive reinforcement is key to developing musicians.