Walter Frank was born
in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1973. Initially
seduced by communications and computers, he established at a young age a
database of music and panel discussions via internet, long before the world
wide web was established as it is today. His first serious contact with music
was at the age of fourteen when a piano was acquired by his family. Since then,
he has never moved away from it.
After two years of
being engaged with keyboards and rock music, he soon started to learn jazz. At
the age of eighteen he found himself attracted to classical music and started
his first degree at the Manuel de Falla Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires. The program
being nine years of studies, he received his degree only after four years of
intense studies. In 1996, six months after graduation, he was the recipient the
Lev Zion scholarship by the Council for Higher Education of Israel. He moved to
Jerusalem where he attended the Jerusalem
“Rubin” Academy
of Music and Dance for
one year studying piano as a special sudent. After a year of studies he moved
to Tel-Aviv where he attended the Conservatory of Music at the Tel-Aviv University. In 1998, totally
disenchanted with the classical music ambience, he returned to Argentina.
In 1999, he began to
improvise seriously at the piano, a project that would last until today.
Without being able to relate his ideas with the music establishment of Buenos Aires, he started
a search over the internet looking for musicians, composers, improvisers, that
would be able to correspond and exchange ideas. In the year 2000 he had the
good fortune to contact Kyle Gann.
After an exchange of e-mails and ideas, Kyle suggested Walter to contact the
composer William Duckworth. In the
same year, a communication between Walter and Bill started to develop
exchanging music and scores until May 2001, year in which Walter travelled to New York invited by a
friend and finally met Bill Duckworth.
It is the year 2002
and Walter felt his ideas and pianism needed a mentor. Following advice by Duckworth,
he applied to Wesleyan
University where Neely Bruce teaches piano and composition. Being
accepted by the University, he moved to the United States and continues his
studies with Neely Bruce and Anthony Braxton. He presently lives in Middletown, Connecticut.