Edgewood Symphony Conductor Takes "Journeys In Music"

Walter Morales is leading the in its season of “Journeys through Music,” while his own path began in Costa Rica as a young boy dreaming of listening to his father’s classical music records.

While his father, a violinist, only played music alone, Morales finally got to listen at 13 years old.

“I fell in love with it,” Morales said.

This Saturday performance at the Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill where Russian music will be featured. Rimsky-Kvsakov’s “Schehevezade” and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf will be performed. WQED’s Jim Cunningham is narrating Peter and the Wolf, Morales said.

“It’s been awhile since we have played Russian music and I am excited because it is a great orchestra builder, everybody gets to play something, it’s big and powerful and exciting, and it gives confidence to the orchestra,” Morales said. “It is a great show piece for them.”

Born and raised in Costa Rica, Morales now lives in Regent Square. He learned to read music on his own and immersed himself in books about music history and theory. When he was 14, his mother took him to the School of Music at the University of Costa Rica where he wanted to play piano.

After the school said he was too old and had the choice of playing viola or bass, simply because those were the spots they needed filled, Morales’ father had a friend who started to teach him how to play piano.

As he got older, Morales decided he wanted to see the world and study his passion of music.

“I realized I wanted to study classical music in a different country because in Costa Rica, it’s all Latin music, and Latin music and Latin music, and that’s fun and I grew up listening to all of that stuff, but to get a good training in music you had to go abroad,” Morales said. “I came to the United States in 1990 when I was 20 years old.”

After getting undergraduate and graduate degrees in South Carolina and New Jersey, Morales came to Pittsburgh in 1997 to study conducting at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2002, he finished the post-graduate degree and was hired by CMU to conduct the New Music Ensemble.

“When I was working at CMU, I did a lot of freelance work in the city,” Morales said. “I guest conducted for the McKeesport Symphony and the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh, so I knew the community.”

Morales has an extensive resume. He has been a guest conductor with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica, Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Philharmonic, University of Costa Rica Symphony Orchestra, Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, McKeesport Symphony Orchestra, Helix New Music Ensemble, and the Rutgers Chamber Orchestra. 

In April 2005, Morales conducted the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as a finalist for the post of assistant conductor. Since then, he has been asked to provide his services as cover conductor. Morales was the head of music for the Opera Theater of Pittsburgh from 2007 to 2009. Most recently, Morales served as conductor and musical advisor of the Pittsburgh Philharmonic.

After guest conducting for the Edgewood Symphony, he became the full-time conductor in 2004.

“The first thing I like about it is everybody loves music,” Morales said. “Classical music – they want to play it and they want to work in it and they were looking for someone to teach them and train them to play a higher level of performance within the level of a volunteer orchestra.”