Performer, academic and music educator Dr Sally Walker is Senior Lecturer in Classical Performance (Woodwind) the Australian National University and has a long-standing association as Guest Principal Flautist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Her creative practice spans solo, orchestral and chamber-music performance and curating, producing and presenting new works. With a repertoire ranging from early music to works composed especially for her, Sally has performed as soloist with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, Klassische Philhamronie Bonn, Accademia Filarmonica de Verona and premiered “Night and Now” concerto, composed for her by Elena Kats-Chernin, with the Darwin Symphony Orchestra and as Principal Flautist with the Omega Ensemble from 2018 – 2022, premiered many new compositions composed for the ensemble. Sally was a prizewinner in the Friedrich Kuhlau International Flute Competition (Germany) and has been nominated for an APRA/AMCOS-Australian Music Centre Arts Excellence Award both for an Outstanding Contribution by an Individual and her “Twilight Musical Dialogues” series was nominated for an APRA Award for Arts Excellence in a Regional Area. Recent performances include critically acclaimed recitals with pianist Simon Tedeschi, productions with Omega Ensemble, Australian Romantic & Classical orchestra and performances in the Australian Festival of Chamber Music, Sydney International Arts Festival, Adelaide Festival, Canberra International Music Festival. Sally’s performances are regularly broadcast by ABC Classic FM and she has been a guest speaker on SBS German Radio and Radio National.

As an orchestral musician, she has toured internationally with the Berlin Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, has performed as Guest Principal Flute with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Radio Philharmonie Hannover, the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra (on historical instruments), and has appeared in the London Proms, Salzburg, Lucerne, Tanglewood and Edinburgh Festivals as well as major Australian ones.

An advocate for new music, Sally has commissioned and premiered numerous works by composers such as Andrew Ford, Henning Kraggerud, Afro Moses and Coco Nelegatti and new creative works developed through her composer/performer collaborations have been presented at the Swedish Flute Festival, Music and Spirituality Symposium and the Sydney Indigenous Music Conference.

Sally wrote her Doctor of Musical Arts thesis (University of Sydney) on developing fluency in switching between modern and historical flutes and has presented related research at several conferences including the International Symposium of Performance Science, 19th Biennial International Conference on Baroque Music and the Conference of the Musicological Society of Australia. The derived physiological and neurological implications have been presented at the Performing Wellness Conference and the Australian Hand Therapists’ Conference and the Australian Flute Festival.

Prior to her appointment at ANU, Sally was Lecturer in Flute at the University of Newcastle, where she was awarded the Vice Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching. She has been a guest teacher at the Instituto Universitario Patagónico de Artes (Argentina), Anton Bruckner Privat Universität Linz (Austria), Royal Irish Academy of Music (Ireland), Kobe University (Japan), Luleå University of Technology (Sweden), Royal Academy of Music (Sweden) the Australian National Academy of Music.

She actively participates in socially driven projects including teaching for the Equal Music program (Illumina Festival), being Ambassador for the Symphony for Life Foundation and organising 1:1 CONCERTS in Australia. With the support of the Klein Family Foundation, Sally was invited to curate the 1:1 Concerts series for the 2021 Adelaide Festival, which gained a five-star review (Limelight). Two days were devoted to performances for women experiencing homelessness, supported by the Mahmood-Martin Foundation. Findings experienced in these programs have been presented in the International Karajan Symposium, UNSW Forces of Music Series and published in the International Journal of Community Music.

A graduate of the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich (Germany), Hanover University of Music, Drama and Media and the University of University of Sydney, Sally Walker’s study has been supported by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange) scholarship, Ian Potter Foundation and the Queen’s Trust Prize.