Walter Gorra

Walter Gorra, a 2011 recipient of the distinguished Boettcher scholarship is currently working towards a bachelor's in jazz piano performance and a master's in structural engineering at CU Boulder. A jazz pianist and composer, he has performed at numerous jazz festivals - the Telluride Jazz Festival, Five Points Jazz Festival, Jazz Aspen Snowmass Festival, Glenwood Springs Summer of Music and the Heineken Jazz Festival in Puerto Rico. Gorra's arrangements and compositions have also received recognition. Most recently, his composition Jazongo was honored with a 2014 Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award. Throughout his time at CU and through his own projects, Walter has had the good fortune to be able to perform with and learn from Art Lande, Jeff Jenkins, Victor Mestas, Paul Romaine, Bob Montgomery, Josh Quinlan, Calixto Oviedo, Josefina Mendez, Greg Osby and Terrell Stafford among others. In 2015, Walter presented a benefit concert for the Damas de Blanco in Cuba featuring an all-star group he selected from the Thompson Jazz Studies program at CU with a very special guest - sixteen-time Grammy award winner and NEA Jazz Master Paquito D'Rivera. The project also included a masterclass presented at the University of Colorado made possible in part by a grant from the Boettcher Foundation, the Thompson Jazz Studies Program and various generous donors.