|
< back to 2008 Schedule
Antony
Walker
July
19, 2008
As the recently
appointed Music Director of Pittsburgh Opera, Antony Walker enjoys
the distinction of serving as one of the youngest music directors
of a regional company in the United States. Mo. Walker made his
professional conducting debut in 1992 in Sydney, Australia, and
has since that time conducted 52 operas, 47 large scale choral/orchestral
works and numerous symphonic and chamber works with companies
in Europe, the United States and Australia. He has led operatic
performances for Welsh National Opera, Opera Australia, Teatro
Comunale di Bologna, Rome Opera, The Minnesota Opera, New York
City Opera, Hawaii Opera Theater, and Cincinnati Opera. He has
also appeared with leading orchestras which include Sydney Symphony
Orchestra, Orchestra of Welsh National Opera, Sydney Opera House
Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Melbourne Symphony
Orchestra, Adelaide Chamber Orchestra, Barossa Festival Orchestra,
Sinfonia Australis, Orchestra of the Antipodes and Chatham Baroque.
Mr. Walker makes his operatic and orchestral debuts in upcoming
seasons with Opera Theater of St. Louis, Glimmerglass Opera,
Arizona Opera, and Orchestre Colonne in Paris.
A prolific recording
artist, Mo. Walker has recorded 27 CDs and DVDs of the works
of Beethoven, Mahler, Mozart, Orff, Fauré, Puccini, Verdi,
Purcell, Handel, Bach, and others. His CD collaboration with
Teddy Tahu Rhodes garnered the ARIA award for Best Classical
Music Album of 2004 and his DVD of the Emperor Concerto, on CD
as part of the complete set of the Beethoven Piano Concertos
Nos. 1-5, won the international DVD Association Award for Music
Excellence for 2005. Releases of Handel's Semele and Purcell's
The Fairy Queen each won high praise in the esteemed International
Record Review.
Acknowledged
for his incisive interpretation and execution of the varied repertoire
he has performed and recorded, as well as his exceptional reading
of new works, Mo. Walker has led acclaimed performances of operas
ranging from the works of Monteverdi to Ruders, Glass and Petitgirard.
Operatic repertoire performed comprises Così fan tutte,
Madama Butterfly, Carmen, Rigoletto, Il Barbiere di Siviglia,
La Traviata, The Queen of Spades, Mitridate, Idomeneo, Dardanus,
Le Nozze di Figaro, I Pagliacci, Carmina Burana, La Bohème,
the North American Premiere of The Handmaid's Tale, Nixon in
China, Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man, Vanessa, Die Zauberflöte,
Il Ritorno D'Ulisse in Patria (with orchestra on period instruments),
Roméo and Juliette, La Cenerentola, Tosca, Orlando, Les
Contes d'Hoffmann, Faust, and others. As Artistic Director of
Washington Concert Opera, Mr. Walker has cast and conducted highly
applauded performances of under-performed operatic works such
as Béatrice et Bénédict, Stiffelio, Roberto
Devereux, La Donna del Lago, Esclarmonde, Luisa Miller, Orlando
and Tancredi. As Co-Artistic Director of Pinchgut Opera, he has
led baroque and early works including Semele, The Fairy Queen,
L'Orfeo, Dardanus and, most recently, Idomeneo with Sinfonia
Australis and the Orchestra of the Antipodes (on period instruments).
Trained as a
cellist, Mo. Walker developed an understanding of orchestral
music at an early age and has since conducted and recorded much
of orchestral and chamber works repertoire. Repertoire performed
includes Beethoven Symphony Nos. 2, 4, and 9; the Triple Concerto,
Opus 56; Mahler's Symphony No. 4; Brahms' Symphony No 3; Saint-Saëns
Organ Symphony; Stravinsky's Firebird Suite; Tchaikovsky's Roméo
et Juliette Fantasy-Overture; Prokofiev's Roméo et Juliette;
Rachmaninoff's Variation on a Theme by Paganini; Dvorak's Serenade
for Strings and the Cello Concerto; Haydn's Trumpet Concerto;
Mendelssohn's Incidental Music from A Midsummer Night's Dream;
Symphony No. 29 of Mozart and the Haffner; along with the works
of Sibelius, Strauss, Weber, Williams, and others. Recent performances
include Falkenberg's Edge of the World and Beethoven's Triple
Concerto, the World Premiere of Falkenberg's Piano Concerto,
Beethoven's 5th Symphony, Brahms's Hungarian Dances, and Copland's
Appalachian Spring.
As a former
tenor, Mo. Walker's understanding of the human voice has contributed
to a particularly successful experience with vocal soloists and
choral performers. As Musical Director of Sydney Philharmonia
Choirs from 1993 to 1997, Mo. Walker led many large-scale works
including Mendelssohn's Elijah, Mozart's Requiem, Bach's Mass
in B Minor and St. Matthew Passion, Berlioz' Roméo et
Juliette and Britten's War Requiem. He returns regularly to Sydney
Philharmonia as guest conductor, where, most recently, he conducted
Janacek's Glagolitic Mass and the world premiere of Nigel Butterley's
Spell of Creation.
Mo. Walker is
the recipient of the distinguished Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting
Award, the Churchill Fellowship and the Queenís Trust
Award. |
