Alfred Walker
Gaining rapid international and national acclaim for his commanding performances, Alfred Walker sings his first American performances of the title role of Der fliegende Holländer with Boston Lyric Opera and joins the roster of the Teatro alla Scala for its production of the same title in the 2012–2013 season. He returns to the Boston Symphony Orchestra to reprise Porgy in Porgy and Bess and to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for Verdi’s Requiem in addition to the Metropolitan Opera for its productions of Il trovatore and Don Giovanni. Future engagements include returns to Seattle Opera and Minnesota Opera as well as debuts at the Wagner Geneva Festival and with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Last season, he reprised his performances of Parsi Rustomji in Glass’ Satyagraha at the Metropolitan Opera and sang Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor with Palm Beach Opera. On the concert platform, he joined the Stuttgart Philharmonic for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and the Reno Philharmonic for Verdi’s Requiem.
The bass-baritone recently triumphed as the title role in Der fliegende Holländer at Theater Basel and returned to the company for his first performances of both Amfortas in Parsifal and Amonasro in Aida. Other recent performances include Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde at Angers Nantes Opera and Opéra de Dijon, Creonte in Medea with the Opéra National de Lorraine in Nancy, and Il Prologo in Gnecchi’s Cassandra with the Deutsche Oper Berlin. His celebrated characterization of Orest in Elektra has been seen at Teatro alla Scala, Seattle Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin and Spain’s San Sebastián Festival, and he received great acclaim for performances of Allazim in the Peter Sellars’ production of Zaïde at the Festival d’Aix en Provence, Wiener Festwochen, London’s Barbican Center and Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. He sang Telramund in concert performances of Lohengrin in Oviedo, Spain under the baton of Semyon Bychkov, and later joined the conductor and the WDR Sinfonie Orchester Köln for Lodovico in Otello.
Additional highlights of recent seasons include his Los Angeles Opera debut as Porgy in Porgy and Bess; title role of Don Quichotte, the Four Villains in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Méphistophélès in Faust with Tulsa Opera; Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte with Minnesota Opera and Utah Opera; Achilla in Giulio Cesare and Colline in La bohème with San Diego Opera; Leporello in Don Giovanni with Opera North; Donner in Das Rheingold with New Orleans Opera; and further performances of Colline in La bohème with Atlanta Opera. Also a frequent presence on the Metropolitan Opera stage, he recently returned to the famed house for Parsi Rustomji in its first presentation Satyagraha following previous engagements in Elektra, Le nozze di Figaro, Roméo et Juliette, Samson et Dalila, Pelléas et Mélisande, Les Troyens and L’enfant et les sortilèges.
Mr. Walker is an equally versatile concert artist. He has sung Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Robert Spano, Utah Symphony, and at the Sun Valley Music Festival. He has joined the Boston Symphony Orchestra for Rossini’s Stabat mater as well as previously for Porgy in Porgy and Bess in performances conducted by Bramwell Tovey at Tanglewood, the Handel and Haydn Society for Mozart’s Requiem, American Symphony Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall for Mahler’s Kindertoten-Lieder and Rückert-Lieder and Los Angeles Philharmonic for Porgy in a concert performance of Porgy and Bess at the famed Hollywood Bowl. Other concert performances include his debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis in Béatrice et Bénédict, Verdi’s Requiem with Marin Alsop conducting the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, at Spoleto Festival U.S.A., and with the Greensboro Symphony, performances with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Carnegie Hall and a concert performance of Strauss’ Salome at the Tanglewood Festival with Seiji Ozawa. He has also presented recitals at the Manchester Music Festival. His recording credits include another collaboration with Semyon Bychov and the WDR Sinfonie Orchester Köln for Orest in Elektra on the Hybrid label as well as performances on Plácido Domingo’s compact disc of Verdi tenor arias for Deutsche Grammophon.
A graduate of Dillard University, Loyola University and the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artist Program, the New Orleans native is the recipient of awards from the George London Foundation, Palm Beach Opera Competition, Houston Opera Studio’s Eleanor McCollum Competition and the Sullivan Foundation career grant.
