Adam Walker - Biography

Adam Walker was supported by BBT between 2010 and 2014.  For an up-to-date biography go to www.maestroarts.com.

In 2009, at the age of 21, Adam Walker was appointed principal flute of the London Symphony Orchestra and received the ‘Outstanding Young Artist Award’ at the MIDEM Classique Awards in Cannes.   He went on to win a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Award and was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Outstanding Young Artist Award. As a soloist Adam has appeared with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Solistes Européens, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Hallé, Royal Philharmonic, Northern Sinfonia, Bournemouth Symphony and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras at venues including the Barbican, Konzerthaus Vienna, Philharmonie Luxembourg and Bridgewater Hall.

In 2011 he gave the world premiere of Brett Dean’s Concerto The Siduri Dances with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and in 2013 returns to perform the Otaka Concerto and Bernstein’s Halil. Engagements during 2013/14 include the premiere of a concerto by Kevin Puts at the Cabrillo Festival, and the premiere of a Flute Concerto by Huw Watkins with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding at the Barbican.

In 2013 he returned to Wigmore Hall with pianist James Baillieu and guitarist Morgan Szymanski and released his first CD entitled Vocalise on the Opus Arte label. Previous concert appearances include LSO St. Lukes (broadcast by BBC Radio 3), City of London Festival, Varese (Italy) and Festspiele Mecklenburg Vorpommern. He has collaborated with pianist Angela Hewitt, singer Bernarda Fink and composer George Benjamin at Wigmore Hall and continues to appear as guest principal with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.  Adam Walker was a YCAT artist between 2007-2013.

Adam Walker recorded his BBT-commissioned Huw Watkins Flute Concerto for NMC, released in 2018. He also participated in BBT’s 20th-anniversary celebrations at London’s Wigmore Hall, June 2023.

I was completely thrilled and honoured to be given a BBT Fellowship in 2010.   To receive this kind of support is very special.   It came at such a perfect time when I had just graduated and started as principal flute of the LSO and has made possible projects that I had only dreamed about before.   To have the wealth of experience BBT brings is a privilege and I am very excited about the process of commissioning a concerto and recording.

Photographs by Simon Weir