A 'Living Stones' Video Profile: Walker Robinson

As a first-year student at Duke, Dr. Walker Robinson, T ’00, G ’01, M ’09, H ’12, sang the Chinese national anthem on the Great Wall of China with members of the Duke Chapel Choir and Duke Chorale. The experience was part of the Chapel Choir’s tour of China during the winter break of 1996–97, for which he had received a full scholarship.

“To be a part of that group, to be representing Duke in a newly opening country, to be singing, to be lending one voice among many was an absolutely stunning moment,” Dr. Robinson says. “We learned at least one other piece in Mandarin, and to go to these communities in China and have them hear us sing in their mother tongue, I think it really touched many of them.”

Ever since then, Robinson has sung in the choir (with a few brief interruptions) while also taking on a variety of other roles at the Chapel and with the Congregation at Duke Chapel; he now serves as the vice chair of the Duke Chapel National Advisory Board. His deep involvement with the Chapel has given him a broad perspective on its impact. Watch his "Living Stones" video profile: