Hall of Fame

In addition to performing in New York, Los Angeles, and Raleigh, accomplished vocalist and actress Waltye Rasulala served for 25 years as Public Affairs Director, Anchor, and Emmy Award-winning producer for WRAL-TV.

Waltye Rasulala was born into a family of physicians, educators, musicians, and writers. Introduced to the world of music and performing when she was very young, she decided to pursue music upon graduation from high school

A graduate of Westminster Choir College of Rider University with a Bachelor of Music in Voice and a Master of Music in Choral Conducting, Waltye was a member of the famed Westminster Touring Choir and Symphonic Choir. Performances with these choirs included the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, and Princeton Symphonies under the batons of conductors Leonard Bernstein, Bruno Walter, Sir John Barbirolli, Herbert von Karajan, and Eugene Ormandy. Touring choir performances covered the United States. As a vocalist/actress she has performed in productions in New York, Los Angeles, Durham, NC and Raleigh, NC, and in solo vocal concerts in Nassau, the Bahamas, Maine, Virginia, and North Carolina.

Following graduate school, she worked with a fellow classmate in Wilmington, Del as an Assistant Minister of Music at West Presbyterian Church. She has taught in the Washington, DC elementary schools as a music specialist and in New York as a music therapist at the Adams School for Exceptional Children. Presently she teaches piano, and voice at the Community Music School of Raleigh.

“It’s a wonderful thing to see what happens when somebody opens themselves up to music.”

Coupling her interest in music and performing, Waltye entered the television broadcast business in Washington, DC, at WMAL-TV now WJLA-TV, as a producer/anchor of a daily live children’s chow. This program was broadcast to the elementary schools in DC, VA, and MD, as part of their daily curriculum. This program received an Emmy for outstanding children’s programming. While at the station, Waltye also produced and anchored a public affairs program.

After working at the station for three years, Waltye moved to Los Angeles, where she worked as a morning show host/producer for KTLA-TV. A call from former WRAL-TV Sr. Vice President Fred Barber brought her back to the East Coast and to WRAL-TV in 1978, where she was Public Affairs Manager and Managing Producer/Anchor of public affairs programming for the station for nineteen years, winning for the station the North Carolina News Directors’ award for Outstanding Public Affairs programming.

“I have been open to each experience, thinking ‘this should be something that I learn from,’ and I have.”

Following her time at WRAL-TV she was Director of Grants for the AJ Fletcher Foundation. Upon leaving the Fletcher Foundation, Waltye served as Development Director for the NC Partnership for Children.

Throughout her career in broadcasting, Waltye has always continued her connection with music and with teaching. In addition to her teaching she presently serves as Choir Master Emeritus for Church of the Nativity in Raleigh, NC and as President of the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute. She also hosts the Wake County Public School System’s annual Pieces of Gold performance.

“I love sitting there on the sidelines just seeing them perform and seeing them glow in the light of the stage lights.”

She has served on numerous boards of nonprofits including as a founding member of Exploris, WakeEd Partnership, and Wake County Smart Start and, in 1986, she was the recipient of the Raleigh Medal of Arts for her outstanding music contributions and support of the arts.

Waltye Rasulala was inducted into the Wake County Public School System Hall of Fame in 2020.