Ms Sally Walker

Biography

Australian flautist Sally Walker was Grand-finalist in the Leonardo de Lorenzo International Flute Competition (Italy), won 2nd Prize in the Friedrich Kuhlau International Flute Competition (Germany) and was awarded prizes from the DAAD, Ian Potter Cultural Fund and the Queen's Trust. She has toured and recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, is a former Principal Flute of the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss, was a member of Kölner Kammerorchester and has performed as Guest Principal Flute with the City of Birmingham Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kammerakademie Potsdam, NDR Radio Philharmonie Hannover and the Australian Chamber Orchestra. She has worked with conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Roger Norrington, Riccardo Chailly, Gustavo Dudamel and performed in the Festivals of Salzburg, Lucerne and the London Proms. From 2003 – 2005 she played full-time with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and in the following year was appointed Lecturer of Flute at the University of Newcastle. She is deeply committed to chamber music and has collaborated with Pianists Clemens Leske, Philip Mayers, Ian Munro, Gabriella Pusner; Cellists Steven Isserlis, Rachel Scott and Geoffrey Gartner; Singers Jenny Duck-Chong, Alison Morgan, Christopher Allan and Paul McMahon; Guitarists Anthony Field, Giuseppe Zangari and the Haga Duo; Harpsichordist Rosalind Halton, Organists Peter Guy and Philip Matthias and Singer/Multi-Instrumentalist Afro Moses. Alongside her chamber music activities, Sally devotes herself passionately to both Early and Contemporary Music. She has worked with Early Music ensembles such as Das Neue Orchester Köln, Neues Bachisches Collegium Musicum and Leipziger Kammerorchester as well as Contemporary Music ensembles such as Halcyon. She has performed in over twenty countries and numerous composers have dedicated works to her including Knut Müller (Germany), Coco Nelegatti (Argentina) as well as Australian composers Jim Chapman, Andrew Chubb, Andrew Ford, Elena Kats-Chernin, William Jeffery, Mark Clement Pollard, Colin Spiers and Paul Stanhope. In 2013 she premiered Andrew Ford’s piece composed for her entitled “Once upon a time there were two brothers…” with the Shanghai String Quartet at the Melbourne Festival. In 2014 she premiered Andrew Chubb’s “Berceuse” (both the flute/piano and the flute/guitar versions). In 2015 she will premiere William Jeffery’s work “Frivols for Two Flutes” with Tim Munro in “Contemporary Flute meets Contemporary Dance". Following a long-standing collaborative relationship with Elena Kats-Chernin, Sally will premiere her flute concerto for her in 2015 with the Darwin Symphony conducted by Matthew Wood and later perform it with the Zelman Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mark Shiell (assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body). She has also performed as concerto soloist with orchestras including the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra (on both flute and piccolo), Orchestra Accademia I Filarmonici di Verona and the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn. Sally has a Bachelor of Music Degree from University of Sydney (studying with Geoffrey Collins) and Artist’s Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover (studying with Prof. Andrea Lieberknecht) and the Soloist’s Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Munich (studying with Prof. András Adorján). Additionally, she has undertaken private study in Montreal with Timothy Hutchins and attended the William Bennett Summer School in the UK.

Research Interest

Studies in Creative Arts and Writing