Graham Walker: Conductor
Brought up in the English choral tradition, Graham began learning the organ at the age of ten. As a chorister and later a choral scholar of St John’s College, Cambridge, he sang daily and received a firm grounding in the repertoire. As an organist he has given recitals and accompanied choirs across the UK and in Germany.
Graham’s interest in conducting was encouraged when he was a winner of the 1996 UNICEF Young Conductors’ Platform. Whilst still a student at Cambridge, he organised and directed concerts including performances of Bach’s B Minor Mass and requiems by Faure and Durufle. He was Musical Director of the Gentlemen of St John’s (professional male-voice choir) and the St John’s Singers (amateur mixed-voice). With the “Gents” he directed concert tours of England and Japan and recorded a commercial CD of the music of Jean Mouton. Since leaving he has been invited back on several occasions as a guest conductor, and has performed works including Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherezade. Until recently, Graham was Musical Director of the Cappella Singers, a mixed-voice chamber choir whose repertoire ranges from Renaissance polyphony to more modern pieces, including Copland’s In the Beginning.
Graham has been Director of Music and Organist of Christ Church, Isle of Dogs since 2003. This vibrant Anglo-Catholic East End church has an enthusiastic musical tradition, and one of the first organs built by Noel Mander (1952). The church plays host to the London Docklands Singers, many of whom also sing in the church choir. Graham both plays and directs the choir, which recently performed Haydn’s Nelson Mass with a professional period-instrument orchestra. He also coaches the organ scholar (the church has links with Trinity College of Music, and each year an organ student from Trinity is Organ Scholar in the church) in the art of choir training. Christ Church is currently developing ambitious plans for a music education centre to be built alongside the church which will provide facilities for the local people.