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The Scottish tenor, Thomas Walker, started his musical training at the age of 10 as a trumpet player. By the time he left secondary school it had become apparent he had a natural talent for music. He won several prizes and awards, and in time progressed from the junior school of music at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD) to the senior school as a first study tuba player. He studied there for 4 years winning several of the Brass department prizes representing the RSAMD in the LASMOSTAFFA prize, he eventually left with a Bachelor of Music degree with honours in the first class.
It was during this time Thomas Walker began to develop an interest in singing, and was active in the choirs at the RSAMD. As a first study brass student, it was compulsory to join the music school choir, and it was here he discovered he could sing. He started studying with the tenor Ian Thompson, and latterly Peter Alexander Wilson and with their advice he decided to audition at the London music schools. He gained scholarship places to all the music schools, and decided to attend the Royal College of Music (RCM) in London and study with Ryland Davies.
Thomas Walker was very fortunate at the RCM and gained a lot of the necessary singing experience that he lacked, along with many external and internal performing opportunities. He remained at the RCM for 4 years, and was the recipient of many scholarships including Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Musicians Benevolent Fund, Scottish International Education Trust, and Caird Scholarships. He was also the first winner of the Prizes Prize from The Worshipful Company of Musicians, the Samling Foundation and one of the first recipients of a Susan Chillcott Scholarship.
Since leaving the RCM, Thomas Walker has been fortunate enough to always be busy at a high level of music making and learning new skills from everyone he work with. In 2002, he made his vocal debut at the Proms in Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah under the baton of Kurt Masur with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2005, he became one of the first singers to receive a Susan Chilcott Award. He has sung Pelléas with the Irish Opera Theatre Company, Linfea in Cavalli’s La Calisto at La Monnaie in Brussels, Zotico in Cavalli's Eliogabalo at the Grange Park Opera, Fenton in Falstaff with the English Touring Opera, Janek in The Makropulos Affair with the English National Opera under the baton of Sir Charles Mackerras, Ferrando in Così fan tutte and Federico in Verdi's Stiffelio at the Holland Park Opera, Alessandro in Il re pastore at the Innsbruck Early Music Festival, The Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier, Lindoro in L’Italiana in Algeri at the Scottish Opera and Letchmere in Benjamin Britten’s Owen Wingrave at Covent Garden. Other roles on the opera stage roles have included Almaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia; the title role in Rameau’s Platée; Eurimaco in The Return of Ulysses, Male Chorus in B. Britten's The Rape of Lucretia, Chevalier in Francis Poulenc's Les Dialogues des Carmélites, Peter Quint in B. Britten's The Turn of the Screw, Gherardo in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi for the Benjamin Britten International Opera school at the RCM; Tamino in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte for BYO. Venues include The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Stuttgart Opera; English National Opera; Scottish Opera; the Edinburgh Festival and La Monnaie, Brussels. Recent operatic engagements have included cover Don Ottavio for Opera North, and Ferrando in W.A. Mozart's Cosi fan tutte for BBIOS.
On the concert platform Thomas Walker has sung F. Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Janacek’s Otcenas (2004) and L.v. Beethoven’s Mass in C for the BBC Proms, and a wide variety of repertoire including J.S. Bach’s St Matthew Passion (BWV 244) and St John Passion (BWV 245), B Minor Mass (BWV 232) and Magnificat (BWV 243); George Frideric Handel’s Jephtha, Rodrigo and Messiah; Haydn’s Creation; W.A. Mozart’s La Betulia Liberata and Requiem; Meyerbeer’s Emma di Resburgo; Schubert’s Mass in E Flat; Robert Schumann’s Paradies und die Peri, B. Britten’s Les Illuminations; Tippett’s A Child of our Time and Igor Stravinsky’s Pulcinella with orchestras and ensembles including Al Ayre Espagnol; Ensemble Matheus; Northern Sinfonia; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra; Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment; BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Orquestra Metropolitana de Lisboa. Conductors worked with have included Sir Andrew Davis, Kurt Masur, Thomas Zehetmair, Daniel Reuss, Harry Bicket, Christian Curnyn, Jean-Christophe Spinosi and René Jacobs.
Recent concert engagements include Haydn's Creation with the Northern Sinfonia, J.S. Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV 248) with the English Chamber Orchestra, J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 147, Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben in Leipzig with the King's College Choir, Cambridge and the Academy of Ancient Music, J.S. Bach's Cantata BWV 55 in Turin with Concensus Musicalis, J.S. Bach's Weihnachts-Oratorium (BWV 248) at the Royal Albert Hall with the King's College Choir, Cambridge and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, J.S. Bach's Magnificat (BWV 243) for the Northern Sinfonia with Thomas Zehetmair, G.F. Handel's Messiah for the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union, a gala concert at St. John's, Smiths Square for the Samling Foundation.
Thomas Walker sang with Wokingham Choral Society at Leighton Park School, Reading on March 27, 2004 performing Rossini's Petite Messe Solennelle. He joined the Society again at Reading University Great Hall on March 19, 2005 when we performed G.F. Handel's Messiah. In 2010, he performed in the 'Chopin and his Europe' festival in Warsaw. |
