Simon Walton
Simon WaltonMusical Director
Simon Walton enjoys a highly successful and varied career as a conductor/director, performer, teacher, and coach.

He is perhaps unusual in having appeared as a conductor, singer and flautist on BBC Radio 3. He began conducting at an early age, and was selected to take part in a conducting masterclass with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, with whom he was principal flute. At university, he founded the Manchester University Mozart players and conducted the New Music Ensemble.

More about Simon

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More about Simon

Simon Walton enjoys a highly successful and varied career as a conductor/director, performer, teacher, and coach. He is perhaps unusual in having appeared as a conductor, singer and flautist on BBC Radio 3. Simon began conducting at an early age, and was selected to take part in a conducting masterclass with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, with whom he was principal flute. He is currently the conductor and artistic director of the Hampstead Chorus and the Chiltern Camerata, and also appears regularly with the Crendon Chamber Orchestra and the Whitehall Orchestra.

Continuing his commitment to new music Simon is a founder member, singer and conductor of the Vocal Constructivists, whose CD Walking Still received outstanding reviews in the national press: “This recording is fabulous… Everyone needs a disc of offbeat contemporary music on their shelves. Start with this one.” (theartsdesk.com); “Walking Still tops my list of current releases” (International Record Review). He has been invited as a guest artist, conductor and speaker by the English universities of Cambridge, Southampton, Christchurch Canterbury and King’s College London and internationally at Wesleyan University USA and the Royal Irish Academy of Music. Simon is a senior coach for the Grittleton summer residential adult chamber music courses, specialising in music for mixed ensembles due to his experience as a multi-instrumentalist. As a singer, Simon made his operatic debut in the role of Luigi (Il Tabarro) in 1996. Other staged roles have included Turrido (Cavalleria Rusticana), Edgardo (Lucia di Lammermoor), Macduff (Macbeth), Loge (Das Rheingold), Samson (Samson et Dalila) and Florestan (Fidelio). He has appeared and recorded with ensembles ranging from the Opéra de Lyon and the Berliner Philharmoniker to the choirs of the London Oratory and Westminster Abbey.