Winners of 2026 Walker Music Competition to Play Free Claremont Concert

Winners of the 2026 John Child Walker Music Competition will give a free public concert at 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 15, at Claremont United Church of Christ's Kingman Chapel, 233 Harrison Ave.

The performers are elementary and high school students who took top honors in this year's competition. They will play solo works and perform with a student chamber music group. The program draws on composers Beethoven, Chopin, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Kreisler, Dvorak and others. A reception will follow the performance.

Admission is free, and the organizers describe the event as open to the public.

Who runs the competition?

The contest carries a long institutional history. The Musicians' Club of Pomona Valley sponsors the Walker Competition and has done so since the contest began.

"The John Child Walker Music Competition was started in 1954 and was instituted to recognize exceptional music students in the Inland Valley area," the Musicians' Club of Pomona Valley wrote in a press release.

That makes the competition more than seven decades old. The club behind it is older still.

"The Musicians' Club of Pomona Valley, founded in 1938, has sponsored the Walker Competition since its inception, and the Club has been grateful to honor these students over the years," the press release continued.

What does the club do beyond the contest?

The organization states a dual mission in the same statement.

"The Club's main purpose has been to promote the appreciation and development of classical music in the community, both through its sponsorship of the Walker Competition as well as its recitals by members which are free and open to the public," the release said.

In practice, that means two recurring activities:

• An annual competition for young musicians in the Inland Valley
• Member recitals that carry no admission charge

The November 15 concert extends that pattern. It puts the competition's winners before a live audience at no cost to attendees, in a venue the club does not operate itself — the Kingman Chapel of Claremont United Church of Christ.

What does this change for local audiences?

For residents of Claremont and the surrounding Inland Valley, the concert offers a chance to hear emerging student talent in a program anchored by canonical repertoire, from Haydn's classical period through Chopin and Mendelssohn's romantic works to Kreisler's shorter pieces. Parents, teachers and classical music listeners can attend without tickets or fees, and the post-concert reception gives the community direct contact with the young performers.

For the students, the event functions as a public capstone to the competition. The stage at Kingman Chapel is the visible reward for the honors awarded through the club's judging process earlier in 2026.

Readers who want further details can call (909) 931-3618 or email the club at the address listed in its announcement.

The concert continues a tradition the Pomona Valley club has sustained since the Eisenhower administration, and its 2026 edition suggests the Walker Competition will remain a fixture of the region's classical music calendar for the Inland Valley's next generation of players.