ÍøÆغÚÁÏ

Britain's Adam Walker became the principal flutist of the London Symphony Orchestra when he was 21. After winning major awards and scholarships, he launched a successful solo career.

Walker was born in 1987 in Retford, in England's Nottinghamshire region. He took up the recorder in school and started piano lessons at seven. Then, when he was nine, his parents gave him a toy flute that they bought out of the trunk of a car, and he took to it immediately. A teacher suggested that he apply to Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, and he was admitted. His teacher there was Gitte Sorensen. In 2002, Walker became the youngest-ever winner of the British Flute Society Competition, and he racked up several more major prizes and competition showings, including a finalist slot in the BBC Young Musicians Competition in 2004, performing Nielsen's Flute Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Walker went on to the Royal Academy of Music, where he had earned a scholarship; he studied there with Michael Cox. In 2007, he appeared on the album Rhian Samuel: Light and Water on the Deux-Elles label. Walker's first solo album was 2013's Vocalise, on the Opus Arte label.

Walker has performed with most of the major British orchestras, and his career as a soloist has taken him to many foreign countries. He has appeared with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, among many other groups. He is the founder of a wind group, the Orsino Ensemble, which has appeared at major venues, including the Musée du Louvre, De Singel Antwerp, and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. A performer with a strong commitment to contemporary music, Walker has given the world premieres of new works by such major composers as Brett Dean (The Siduri Dances), Kevin Puts (a Flute Concerto), and Huw Watkins (also a flute concerto). He recorded the Puts work for the Naxos label in 2016. In 2021, Walker moved to the Chandos label, issuing the album French Works for Flute. In 2023, he issued three albums on Chandos, including Pierre Sancan: A Musical Tribute. ~ James Manheim