David Walter · Oboe

Born in Paris in 1958, David Walter has pursued an original career: after obtaining First Prize in oboe and chamber music at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris (Paris Conservatoire), he quickly gained recognition outside of France by winning five international prizes one after the other in Ancona, Prague, Munich, Belgrade and Geneva. His chamber music activities include first and foremost playing with the Quintette Moragues, of which he is a founding member (1980) : together they have won the Grand Prize of the Nouvelle Académie du Disque and were nominated for the first Victoires de la Musique Classique. His other partners include S. Richter, C. Zacharias, M. Dalberto, P. Rogé, A. Planès, G. Nicolic, M.A. Nicolas, C.M. Le Guay, Yuki Nakajima, Claire Désert and the Sine Nomine, Endellion, Manfred and Parisii string quartets.

David Walter was only 29 years old when, owing to his enthusiasm and dedication to teaching, he was appointed the youngest-ever oboe and chamber music professor at the renowned Paris Conservatoire. He has also taught at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama since 1997, and regularly gives numerous masterclasses all over the world.

In an attempt to enrich the relatively limited oboe repertoire, Mr. Walter has proved himself a tireless and authoritative transcriber : to date he has made more than 1000 arrangements, and many of which are now well known. He also encourages new works by composers such as Gilles Raynal or Hristo Yotsov, and is himself a composer (about 30 works). Last december 2016, he conducted his opera La jeune fille sans mains in Paris with the Orchestre National de l’Ile de France at the Philharmonie de Paris.