BIOGRAPHY

 “Walker is an outstanding performer…his playing was remarkable” The Guardian June 2020

At the forefront of a new generation of wind soloists, Adam Walker is a leading ambassador for the Flute with a ferocious appetite for repertoire and a curious and creative approach to programming.  His interests range from lesser-known French Baroque repertoire through to newly commissioned works.  He has given world premieres of concertos by composers including Brett Dean, Kevin Puts, and Huw Watkins as well as championing works by Kaija Saariaho, John Corigliano and Weinberg.

As a soloist Walker regularly performs with the major UK orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, London Symphony, Hallé, Ulster, Sinfonia of London, Scottish Chamber, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Sinfonia of London.  Further afield he has performed with the Baltimore Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Grant Park Festival, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Mexico, Seoul Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, Malaysian Philharmonic, Malmö Symphony, Tampere Philharmonic, Orquesta Sinfonica de Tenerife, Vienna Chamber, Solistes Européens, Luxembourg and the RTE National Symphony Orchestras.

A committed chamber musician with an open and collaborative style, recent seasons have seen Walker make appearances at the BBC Chamber Proms, Wigmore Hall, LSO St Luke’s, De Singel Antwerp, Musée du Louvre, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, Frankfurt Alte Oper and the Utrecht, West Cork, Delft and Moritzburg Chamber Music Festivals.  Recent collaborators include Tabea Zimmermann, Cédric Tiberghien, Angela Hewitt, Mahan Esfahani, Ailish Tynan and Sean Shibe.  Walker is an alumnus of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s prestigious Bowers Program and in 2018 he founded the Orsino Ensemble; an ensemble with a mission to showcase the depth and versatility of the wind chamber repertoire. 

Concerto engagements in the 2022/23 season include Nielsen with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ed Gardner and Mozart with the National Symphony Orchestra of India.  Chamber music projects include an extensive tour of Australia for Musica Viva in collaboration with Timothy Ridout and Anneleen Lenaerts in a specially curated programme featuring works by Takemitsu, Debussy and whilst other collaborations take him to Wigmore Hall, Schloss Elmau and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to work with artists including Tabea Zimmerman, Sean Shibe and James Baillieu.  With his Orsino Ensemble, Walker performs at Wigmore Hall, LSO St Luke’s and Sibelius Hall, as well as undertaking a weekend residency at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.  

Walker’s first recital disc for the Chandos label was released in spring 2021; “French Works for Flute” saw him praised in Gramophone for his “clear, cool, bright tone, effortless technique and finely nuanced expressiveness”.  2021 also saw the simultaneous release on Chandos of the debut recording from Walker’s Orsino Ensemble, showcasing repertoire from the French Belle Époque and praised as a showcase of “all-star playing of the highest level” by The Guardian.  Previous solo releases include “Vocalise” for the Opus Arte label; an exploration of the lyrical, vocal nature of the Flute, which prompted The Guardian to praise Walker as “a stunning talent”.  He has also recorded the Kevin Puts Flute Concerto with Marin Alsop and the Peabody Institute (Naxos) and the Huw Watkins Concerto with the Hallé and Ryan Wigglesworth (NMC). Future recordings for Chandos include British recital repertoire with Huw Watkins. 

Adam Walker studied at Chetham’s School of Music with Gitte Sorensen and at the Royal Academy of Music with Michael Cox graduating with distinction in 2009 and winning the HRH Princess Alice Prize for exemplary studentship.  

He was appointed principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra at the age of just 21, a position he held until 2020.  His many awards include Outstanding Young Artist Award at MIDEM Classique as well as a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship.  He was appointed professor at the Royal College of Music in 2017 and at the Bern Academy of the Arts in 2022.

www.adamwalkerflute.com                                                                                                                                                                        2022/23

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