Garry Walker
Conductor
Winner of the 1999 Leeds Conductor’s Competition, Scottish born Garry Walker studied cello (with Ralph Kirshbaum) and conducting at the Royal Northern College of Music. He is now Visiting Professor of Conducting at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Garry Walker was Permanent Guest Conductor of Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Guest Conductor of Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Principal Conductor of Paragon Ensemble and now enjoys a close association with Red Note Ensemble Scotland’s première contemporary music ensemble.
In the UK Garry Walker has worked with all the BBC orchestras, the Hallé, London Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. Chamber orchestras have included the Northern Sinfonia, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra and Academy of St Martin’s in the Fields. With SCO he has appeared at the St Magnus Festival, with the ECO in Lisbon and the City of London Festival and with ASMF at the Barbican’s Mostly Mozart Festival. He regularly appears at the Edinburgh International Festival and in 2003 conducted a notable performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’ with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
Orchestras that he has worked with outside of the UK include the Nieuw Ensemble, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Collegium Musicum, Denmark, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin and Orchestra della Toscana. Further afield he has conducted the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and has had re-invitations to both the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonia as well as making his US debut with the Utah Symphony Orchestra.
An experienced opera conductor, Garry Walker conducted Janacek’s’ The Cunning Little Vixen for Garsington Opera in July 2014. He has conducted both Britten’s Curlew River and the world première of Stuart Macrae’s opera The Assassin Tree at the Edinburgh International Festival. He also conducted the Macrae at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio, David McVicar’s much acclaimed production of Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw and Raskatov’s A Dog’s Heart for English National Opera, Cimarosa’s The Secret Marriage for Scottish Opera, Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito at the Royal Northern College of Music and Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine at the Linbury Studio Theatre at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Outside the UK he has conducted Curlew River for Lyon Opera and a new production by Calixto Bieito of Hosakawa’s Hanjo at the Ruhr Triennale.
Future plans include a return with the Auckland Philharmonia and concerts with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisbona, Teatro dell’Opera Roma, Philharmonie Zuidederland, and the London Sinfonietta, including a tour of Mexico. In the 16/17 season he will conduct a opera production for Opera North.
Amongst the many international soloists with whom Garry Walker has collaborated are Maxim Vengerov, Truls Mørk, Mischa Maisky, James Ehnes, David Geringas and Branford Marsalis.
Recordings have included works by Havergal Brian and Matthew Taylor on Toccata Classics, Edward Harper on Delphian and Dvorak on Sony.