James Walker

Who was James Walker?

James Walker was an Australian musician known both as a conductor of ballet and opera and as a recording producer supervising classical recording sessions.

As a conductor Walker was musical director of the International Ballet company from 1947 to 1953 and of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company from 1968 to 1971 in succession to Isidore Godfrey. For D'Oyly Carte he supervised and sometimes conducted recordings from the 1950s to the 1970s.

Before and after his years with D'Oyly Carte Walker was a producer for Decca Records, working with a large number of international artists including Benjamin Britten, Pierre Monteux, Renata Tebaldi, Herbert von Karajan and Vladimir Ashkenazy. Many of the 1950s and 1960s recordings produced by Walker have been transferred to CD and remain in the catalogues.