Antony Walker (conductor)
Antony Walker is an Australian conductor, who currently resides in Washington, D.C. He has held the positions of Musical Director of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Chorus Master and staff conductor of Welsh National Opera, and is currently Artistic Director and Conductor with Washington Concert Opera and Music Director of Pittsburgh Opera. He co-founded Pinchgut Opera, the vocal ensemble Cantillation and the orchestras Sinfonia Australis and Orchestra of the Antipodes. Educated at Sydney Grammar School, and an Honors graduate of the University of Sydney, Walker trained as a singer, pianist, cellist and composer, and is well known for being a supportive "singer's conductor" as well as being passionate about training young singers.
At The Metropolitan Opera in New York Walker has led performances of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, The Barber of Seville, The Magic Flute, and Les Pêcheurs de Perles, as well as the National Council Auditions Grand Finals Concert in 2016.
For English National Opera he has conducted Lucia di Lammermoor and The Tales of Hoffmann.
Walker has appeared as guest conductor with Opera Australia, West Australian Opera, English National Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, The Glimmerglass Festival, The Merola Program of the San Francisco Opera, Chautauqua Opera, Minnesota Opera, Arizona Opera, Lyric Opera of Kansas City, North Carolina Opera, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, and Opera di Firenze. In 2008, Walker conducted the US premiere of William Walton's opera Troilus and Cressida at Opera Theater of St Louis, and in the 2018/19 season for Washington Concert Opera he conducted the US premiere of Gounod's Sapho and the first performance in the US since 1835 of Rossini's Zelmira.
He has conducted the Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide, Tasmanian and West Australian Symphony Orchestras, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestre Colonne in Paris, Thessaloniki State Symphony and most recently made his debut with the Mozarteum Orchester in Salzburg in Jan 2019 with a program of Berlioz and Tchaikovsky. Maestro Walker is particularly noted as a fine interpreter of "bel canto", Rossini, French opera, Verdi, Puccini, the Viennese classical composers, Bach and Handel, as well as French and English composers of the 20thC.
