Nicholas Walker

About the show

MOZART Rondo in A minor, K. 511
BEETHOVEN Sonata in D minor, Op. 31 no. 2 (Tempest)
CHOPIN Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38
BALAKIREV Au Jardin & La Fileuse
LISZT Liebesträume
LISZT Mephisto-Waltz No. 1 (The Dance in the Village Inn)

NICHOLAS WALKER studied at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won all the major awards for both piano and composition, and subsequently at the Moscow Conservatoire. While still a student in Moscow he won the first Newport International Piano Competition and has since performed with many British Orchestras including the City of Birmingham, Royal Philharmonic, London Mozart Players, the Philharmonia and BBC National Symphony Orchestra of Wales. As well as playing in all the major London concert halls, he has toured in North and South America, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Scandinavia, Australia and Russia. He has recorded for BBC Radio 3, Cirrus, ASV, BMG Arte Nova, Chandos, Toccata Classics and Naxos.

Although Nicholas's performances of Beethoven have brought him special acclaim, it is for his championing of Tchaikovsky's contemporary, Mili Alexei Balakirev, that he is best known. In 2010 he devised and presented the Balakirev Festival at London's St John's Smith Square and has recently finished recording his complete works for piano. He also recently gave two Wigmore Hall recitals featuring Balakirev's works.