A flautist with a repertoire ranging from early music to contemporary works composed for her, Sally Walker enjoyed her first performances with the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra in 2021 at the Canberra International Music Festival, and tutored in the Young Mannheim Symphonists program. She is Senior Lecturer in Performance at the Australian National University, former Principal Flute with the Omega Ensemble and regular Guest Principal Flute with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, where she has played modern flute and piccolo as well as baroque flute, classical flute and recorder.
During her decade of living in Germany, Sally performed with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in the London Proms, Salzburg Festspiele and the Lucerne Festivals, held a second flute/piccolo contract with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, was Principal Flute of the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein, a member of Kölner Kammerorchester and performed as Guest Principal with the Kammerakademie Potsdam, NDR Radio Philharmonie Hannover, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
She has won prizes in competitions including the “Friedrich Kuhlau” International Flute Competition and has performed as concerto soloist with the Klassische Philharmonie Bonn, Dortmunder Philharmoniker, Accademia Filarmonica di Verona and the Darwin Symphony Orchestra.
Also in her time in Germany, her passion and curiosity for Historically Informed Performance practice intensified, and upon relocating to Australia, she began her Doctor of Musical Arts at the Early Music Unit at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Sally has recently submitted her thesis on developing fluency in switching between modern and historical flutes and has presented related research at several conferences including the International Symposium of Performance Science, 19th Biennial International Conference on Baroque Music and the Conference of the Musicological Society of Australia. The derived physiological and neurological implications have been presented at the Performing Wellness Conference and Australian Hand Therapists’ Conference.
Recent performances include critically acclaimed recitals with pianist Simon Tedeschi, productions with the Omega Ensemble and performances in the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Sydney International Arts Festival and her “Twilight Musical Dialogues” series, nominated for an APRA AMCOS Arts Excellence in a Regional Area Award. Sally’s performances are regularly broadcast by ABC Classic and she has been a guest speaker on SBS German Radio. She actively participates in socially driven projects including organising 1:1 CONCERTS in Australia (her series curated for the Adelaide Festival gained a 5-star Limelight review), teaching for the Equal Music program (Illumina Festival) and being Ambassador for the Symphony for Life Foundation.
As a music educator, she was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching from the University of Newcastle and has been a guest lecturer or teacher for the Royal Academy of Music (Sweden), Royal Irish Academy of Music (Ireland), Anton Bruckner Privat Universität Linz (Austria), Kobe University (Japan), Luleå University of Technology (Sweden), Instituto Universitario Patagónico de Artes (Argentina), Australian National Academy of Music, Griffith University and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
A graduate of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich (Germany), Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and the University of University of Sydney, Sally Walker’s study has been supported by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange), Ian Potter Foundation and the Queen’s Trust Prize.
photo credit: Keith Saunders