Giovanni Walker is pursuing his dream as a high school band director at Dexter High School. He grew up in Sikeston, Missouri and graduated from Sikeston High School in 2013.
From 2013 to 2017 he pursued a Bachelor of Music Education at Culver Stockton, private Christian liberal arts college in Canton, Missouri.
After graduating from college he worked a few odd jobs while scouring the internet for his first real teaching job. Luckily he ended up finding a k-12 Choir and Band Director position in Stanberry, Missouri where he taught for two years.
He really wanted to get back to the Sikeston area and he was able to acquire a teaching job at Southeast Elementary in Sikeston as their elementary music teacher, but he still yearned to be a band director at the high school level.
Mr. Scott Rybolt, DHS Band Director, retired and when that position became available, Mr. Walker couldn't resist going after his dream job!
"I studied day and night until my interview and varsity band clinic," commented Walker. "This was an opportunity that I couldn't let pass up! What kept me studying as hard as I did was thinking about how hard the best person would study for this position and trying to push myself past that. I'm very thankful to have this job and I will continue to work to provide my students with the best music education experience I can."
On July 2, 2021 he married Jacy Walker.
Jacy is now the choir director at Sikeston.
"We are so excited to start building a life here in southeast Missouri," stated Walker. "We have two pet cats Elliot and Oliver."
His primary instrument is the tenor saxophone, but he is well trained in the other instruments in the woodwind family.
Giovanni began this summer at Dexter High School with band camp.
"Band camp went extremely well for the Varsity Band," continued Walker. "This was a great opportunity to learn the many faces and personalities of the band program, learn about the things they value about the band, and what they would like to see going forward. I'm very much looking forward to working with these students."
As of now the high school has about 64 students in the Varsity Band and 14 in the Jazz band.
This year's marching show will consist of a Latin-Jazz theme. The tunes they will be playing are Caravan arranged by Roland Barrett, El Gato Triste by Jay Dawson, The Girl from Ipanema arranged by Paul Murtha, and Malaguena arranged by Jay Bocook.
When ask what his favorite music is these days, he said, "my favorite kind of music has to be R & B or rhythm and blues. I love the harmonic language, the ability this genre has to always feel innovative and fresh, and how it isn't limited to a specific instrumentation. One of my most favorite artists right now is Frank Ocean."
We welcome Mr. Walker to the Dexter High School Band and to our community!
