The We Are One Community Choir is now under the direction of Bruce Walker, who will conduct the choir’s Christmas concert, “The Presence/Presents of Christmas” at 7 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 3, at Rickman Auditorium, 747 Jeffco Blvd., Arnold.

Walker, who is from Sikeston, graduated from Southwest Baptist University in 1980 with a bachelor of music education degree — vocal and instrumental.

His master of arts in education degree, with an emphasis in choral conducting, was earned in 1982 from Northeast Missouri State University — now Truman State. Upon graduation, he began teaching band and choir at Atchison High School in Kansas, serving there from 1982 to 1983.

The following year, he accepted the choral position at Richmond High School in Richmond. Walker left teaching in 1985 when he accepted a full-time ministry position with the First Baptist Church of Carrolton. In 1986, he moved to St. Louis to assume the position of minister of music and youth at the First Baptist Church of Affton. He left Affton in 1991 and worked in the public sector from 1992 to 1996 with Southwestern Bell.

Walker became the choral director at Fox Middle School in 1996 and now is in his 16th year at that position. From 1997 to 2005, he was the minister of music at Southminster Presbyterian Church in Crestwood.

He currently heads the music ministry at Redeemer Evangelical Church in South St. Louis.

He and his wife, Sandy, live in Imperial.

They have four children and two grandchildren.

The multitalented director is an accomplished performer, singing and playing numerous instruments.

In 2005, he was invited to give a one-man performance to help raise money for the St. Louis Food Bank.

He also is an occasional performer in the Garden Chapel’s Concert Series at the Church of the Open Word in Creve Coeur, sharing the stage with Paul Deming, concert series coordinator and lead guitarist for the Ralph Butler Band.

Under Walker’s direction, Fox Middle School choirs have won Sweepstakes and First-Place Awards at the Worlds of Fun Music Festival (1997), the Orlando All-Star Music Festival (2002 and 2004) and the Smoky Mountain Festival (2003).

“Working with the We Are One Community Choir is an exciting addition to the choral responsibilities I already have with Fox Middle and Redeemer Evangelical,” Walker stated in a news release. “It fills a gap in several facets of my current experience. Between teaching middle school and working with the church choir, I work with extremes — young and untrained voices in middle school to the church choir which has a high percentage of seniors.

“The community choir is a wonderful, diverse ensemble of voices ranging from high school students to senior adults. Within this choir I have former students, their parents and very close friends with whom I now have the privilege of sharing the gift of making music,” he added.

Walker accepted the position of director in September upon the resignation of Martin Johnson, the original director and one of the founding members of the We Are One Community Choir, the release stated.