Maestro Antony Walker begins his sixth year as Artistic Director and Conductor of Washington Concert Opera with the 2007-2008 season. His WCO performances have demonstrated his affinity for outstanding examples of the French repertoire (Beatrice and Benedict and Esclarmonde), the drama of Verdi (Stiffelio and Luisa Miller), and 19^th century bel canto works (Roberto Devereux and La Donna del Lago). He further explored the musical horizons with a double bill of verismo operas (Il Tabarro and Cavalleria Rusticana), an early opera seria (Tancredi), and WCO’s first Handel opera (Orlando). As part of the 2007 Shakespeare in Washington citywide festival, he presented the rarely performed Otello by Rossini, and in 2007-2008 he will bring to the Washington area the rarely performed Rossini opera Bianca e Falliero as well as Bellini’s beautiful I Puritani.

Born in Sydney in 1967, Maestro Walker studied composition, cello, voice, and conducting at the University of Sydney. At the age of 22, he became musical director of the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs where for five years he prepared and conducted works such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s Mass in B Minor and St. Matthew Passion, and Britten’s War Requiem.

Since his conducting debut in 1991, he has led 57 operas, 47 large-scale choral/orchestral works, and numerous symphonic works with companies in Europe, his native Australia, and the United States. His impressive talent was recognized in October 2006 when Pittsburgh Opera signed him to a three-year contract as its Music Director; he will also continue as Artistic Director for WCO. 

His ever-expanding repertoire ranges from the early 17^th to the 21^st century, and he is equally at home with baroque, "standard" Italian and French operas from various periods, and modern dramatic works. Recent engagements with New York City Opera, Minnesota Opera, Pittsburgh Opera Center, and the Wolf Trap Opera Company have included, respectively, Handel’s Orlando and Semele, the North American premiere of Poul Ruders’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Petitgirard's The Elephant Man and Adams' Nixon in China, Monteverdi’s Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria, and Rameau’s Dardanus. In summer 2006 he conducted Barber's Vanessa for Chautauqua Opera. He has also been guest conductor with Hawaii Opera, the Sugar Creek Festival, Cincinnati Opera, the Barossa International Festival, Rome Opera, and Teatro Communale di Bologna.  Recent engagements include Idomeneo in Sydney, The Magic Flute and Billy Budd for Pittsburgh Opera, and debuts with Glimmerglass Opera (Monteverdi's L'Orfeo) and Arizona Opera (Madama Butterfly).

Previously, as chorusmaster and conductor with the Welsh National Opera from 1998 to 2002, he conducted, among other operas, The Queen of Spades, Madame Butterfly, Carmen, Rigoletto, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Cosi fan tutte, and La Traviata. In 2005 he received the Richard F. Gold Debut Artist Award from the New York City Opera following his conducting of Orlando. Earlier he was the first recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Award presented by the British Council and the Australia Britain Society.

In addition to his WCO and Pittsburgh Opera positions and guest assignments throughout the world, Maestro Walker maintains a very active musical career in Australia. He became Co-Artistic Director of Sydney’s Pinchgut Opera in 2002 and has since conducted all their performances to great critical acclaim. He also heads the chorus Cantillation and the chamber orchestras Sinfonia Australis and the Orchestra of the Antipodes, all of which have made recordings for ABC Classics.

Among his 23 CDs and DVDs are Semele and Messiah (Handel), Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, a disc with Teddy Tahu Rhodes which won the 2004 ARIA award for Best Classical Album, and the complete Beethoven piano concertos with Gerard Willems and Sinfonia Australis. The DVD of the Emperor Concerto won the Best Classic Award from the American DVD Society in 2005. (Click on CDs available for information on ordering.)

Arizona Opera, 2007

Glimmerglass Opera, summer 2007

Chautauqua Opera, 2006

The New York City Opera, 2005, 2006

The Minnesota Opera, 2000-2006

Hawaii Opera, 2004, 2006

Pittsburgh Opera, 2004

Sugar Creek Festival, 2004-2005

Barossa International Festival, 2003

Teatro Comunale di Bologna, 2002

Cincinnati Opera, 2001

Wolf Trap Opera Company, 1997, 1999, 2003

Opera Australia, 1996-present

Selangor Philharmonic Choir & National Symphony Orchestra, 1997

Synergy Percussion, 1996-1998

Sydney Symphony Orchestra, 1992-1996

Sydney Alpha Ensemble, 1992-present

Artistic Director, Washington Concert Opera – 2002-present

Music Director, Pittsburgh Opera -- appointed October 2006

Co-Artistic Director, Pinchgut Opera – 2002-present

Conductor and Chorusmaster, Welsh National Opera, 1998-2002

Music Director, Cantillation & Sinfonia Australis, 2001-present

Music Director, Orchestra of the Antipodes, from 2002

Musical Director, The Contemporary Singers, 1987-present

Musical Director, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, 1993-1997

Musical Director, Sydney Philharmonia Orchestra, 1992-1997

Richard F. Gold Debut Award, New York City Opera, 2005

Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Award, 1997 (inaugural)

Churchill Fellowship, 1995

Queen's Trust Award, 1995

Australian Music Foundation (London) Scholarship, 1995