About
Gabriel Walker
Baritone
A native of Houston, Texas, Gabriel Walker is a baritone. He appears regularly as bass soloist with Bach Society Houston and Mercury Chamber Orchestra, and his singing runs from the Baroque and bel canto repertoire to new work written in the last few years.
With Bach Society Houston he has sung the Mass in B minor, the St John Passion on Good Friday, the Christmas Oratorio, Ein feste Burg, BWV 80 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the cantatas — BWV 79, BWV 72, BWV 124, BWV 125 and BWV 17 for a season finale. With Mercury Chamber Orchestra he has sung Bach’s Christmas Oratorio under Antoine Plante and returned for Vivaldi’s Voices. Elsewhere in Houston he has sung Part I of Handel’s Messiah with the choirs of Saint Thomas Episcopal Church & School, Parts IV–VI of the Christmas Oratorio at Rice University, and Bach’s St Matthew Passion with the Calyx Ensemble in Chicago.
On stage he has sung Moralès in Carmen, Tenorio in Man of La Mancha and Mr Jenks, covering Top, in Copland’s The Tender Land, all as a Festival Artist with Utah Festival Opera. At Northwestern Opera Theater he sang Masetto in Don Giovanni, Bartley in Riders to the Sea and the Keeper of the Madhouse in The Rake’s Progress. He made his TCU Opera Studio début as Emilio in Rota’s Il cappello di paglia di Firenze, and has sung Ben Upthegrove in Menotti’s The Telephone with i Colori dell’Opera, King Balthazar in Amahl and the Night Visitors, L’imperial Commissario in Madama Butterfly and Il Notaio in Gianni Schicchi with Fargo-Moorhead Opera, and Ruder in The Student Prince as a Chautauqua Opera Young Artist. He has also appeared in the chorus of Götterdämmerung with Houston Grand Opera and in Golijov’s La Pasión según San Marcos with the Minnesota Orchestra and Border CrosSing.
New music has a steady place in his work. He sang the world première of Jasmine Barnes’ REVISE? with Apollo Chamber Players, on poetry by Deborah D.E.E.P. Mouton, and the world première of Blaise Ferrandino’s A Service of Love. He has also performed in The Art of Black Excellence, the Capital Area Music Association’s fiftieth anniversary concert in Harrisburg, and in NIDRA Live: Affirmation of the Soul — yoga nidra being a guided meditation that settles the body into the threshold between waking and sleep.
In recital he has sung Schumann’s Dichterliebe with pianist Daria Kiseleva, Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn at Northwestern, Barber’s Dover Beach, and a programme of his own devising, A Journey Home to Self, with pianist Joseph Russell. He held a Schubert Fellowship at SongFest at the Colburn School and appeared in concert with Craig Rutenberg at Chautauqua.
He holds a Master of Music from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Music in vocal performance from Concordia College.
Gabriel is also the founder of The Infinite Heart, a contemplative project he created for personal and spiritual development and empowerment, through writing, community and gatherings.
Appearances with
