Nicholas Walker
Bass Artist
Nicholas Walker is an accomplished musician who brings a broad range of training and experience to the string bass: classical and jazz, modern and baroque, solo recitals and chamber ensembles, his enthusiasm and aptitude transcend arbitrary musical boundaries.
Walker earned his DMA in Early Music at Stony Brook University in 2004. Formerly Walker studied with Paul Ellison at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University where he received a BMA in 1994. Walker has also apprenticed with two master mentors: for three years he toured with swing era saxophone legend Illinois Jacquet, and for the last fourteen years Walker has worked closely with the pioneering maestro of the bass, François Rabbath. As a Fulbright Scholar (1994-95) he began his training with Rabbath at the Nadia Boulanger Conservatoire de Paris. His research focused on pedagogical components of Rabbath's "Nouvelle Technique de la Contrabasse", and adapting Rabbath's technique and repertoire for the American Jazz and Latin music traditions.
An inventive composer, Walker features the string bass in chamber music and improvisational contexts. In 1998 the International Society of Bassists awarded him Grand Prize for his composition, EADG for Solo Bass. Recent commissions include Little Newt for the Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, a sextet, Magnus Caligus, and a bass/viola duo, Song of Freia, for Ardesco, and Pop Song for String Bass and String Orchestra for the American String Teachers Association, which Walker has performed with the University of South Carolina Orchestra, at the NYASTA Orchestra in Ithaca, at the Autumn Bass Workshop in Adelaide, Australia, in Saratoga Springs, and Boston.
Walker's exuberant and versatile performances on string bass have made him a sought after performer. He has recorded with Juan Pablo Torres, Blossom Dearie, Anny Gould, Paquito D'Rivera, and others. During the late 1990s Walker served as music director and band leader of Bateaux New York, and also played with a diverse range of New York musicians and artists, including dancers and filmmakers.
As a teacher, Walker demonstrates the art of playing the broadest sense: he shows the full capacity of the instrument, and guides students to new levels in the traditional repertoire as well as in the art of improvisation and creative collaboration. Walker has been on the faculty at the Autumn Bass Workshop in Adelaide, Australia; the Domain Forget Music Festival, Quebec; at the Rabbath Institute, Washington, D.C.; and he has lectured for both the International Society of Bassists, and for the American String Teachers Association/National String Orchestra Association. Walker has given masterclasses and recitals at Ithaca College, Baldwin Wallace University in Cleveland, Nazareth College in Rochester, and Sookmyoung University in Soeul Korea.
Walker has been on the faculty of the Stony Brook Pre-College Program, and at the Music Conservatory of Westchester. Currently Mr. Walker is on the faculty of Ithaca College, Mansfield University, and Cornell University. He enjoys an active lifestyle performing solo recitals, 'performance practice' concerts with The Walker Period Instrument Performance Ensemble (PIP Ensemble), an early music quartet devoted to improvisation, and to exposing a thrilling musical panache of another age. A devoted exponent of contemporary music, Walker performs regularly with Ardesco, and Ensemble X. A new bluegrass crossover recording by Stolen Shack was recently featured on NPR's All Songs Considered.