Alexander Walker‘s career has taken him all over the world. In the UK, he has conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in both concerts and the recording studio, conducting the prestigious Elgar Birthday concert with them in Malvern in 2011. He recently made a highly successful debut with the English Chamber Orchestra at London’s Cadogan Hall and he has also conducted the City of London Sinfonia, the BBC Philharmonic (with a concert broadcast on BBC Radio 3) and the New Queens Hall Orchestra in the UK.

In Moscow he is a regular guest conductor with the legendary Russian State Symphony Orchestra, as well as with Symphony Orchestra New Russia (Music Director: Yuri Bashmet), the Russian Philharmonic and Musica Viva, conducting concerts at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Hall, International Performing Arts Centre and elsewhere. International appearances have included concerts with Prague Philharmonia in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, the Belgrade Philharmonic, Belgrade Strings (broadcasting on National Television with them), the George Enescu Philharmonic, Bucharest, North Hungarian Symphony Orchestra and Wrocław State Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of recent seasons have included a performance of Britten’s War Requiem to mark the 70 years since the invasion of Poland in Lublin, Poland and the first ever production in Turkey of an opera by Benjamin Britten, conducting The Turn of the Screw for the Istanbul State Opera. He also recently conducted the first production of Julian Grant’s new opera Prophet and Loss for Oundle International Festival. His pioneering recordings of orchestral music and music for violin and orchestra by Ignatz Waghalter and first two CDs of symphonies by Havergal Brian on Naxos with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra New Russia have won both critical and popular acclaim.

Alexander Walker studied with Ilya Musin at St. Petersburg Conservatoire and has since performed throughout the former Soviet Union where many of his concerts have been broadcast on National television and radio. He was Principal Guest Conductor of the Voronezh State Symphony Orchestra from 1999-2004. He is a regular guest conductor with the Mikkeli and Lappeenranta City Orchestras in Finland, and of the Esbjerg Ensemble and the Vestjysk Symfoniorkestret in Denmark as well as many orchestras throughout Poland, the Balkans, Turkey and Romania.

He works regularly at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, touring with the Royal Ballet to the Bolshoi and Mariinsky Theatres in Russia, throughout the USA including to the Metropolitan Opera and Kennedy Center, as well as to Singapore, Korea, Japan and Turkey. In addition to conducting performances at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, has conducted Swan Lake for Finnish National Opera, Cinderella for Scottish Ballet, Romeo and Juliet for Northern Ballet Theatre, and a production of The Nutcracker for the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo. His operatic repertoire includes the major operas of Verdi, Puccini and Mozart and Tchaikovsky as well as Tobias and the Angel, Carmen, Rusalka, Tristan und Isolde, Verbum Nobile (Moniuszko), A Life for the Tsar, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Gli Equivoci nel sembiante, Le Postillon de Lonjumeau (Adam), and Paradise Moscow. Companies he has worked for have included Opera North, Grange Park Opera, English Touring Opera, Oundle International Festival, Bampton Classical Opera, Chelsea Opera Group, European Chamber Opera, Opera de Baugé, London City Opera and the Ukrainian National Opera in Odessa.

Alex was awarded the Elgar Medal in 2017, the highest honour bestowed by the Elgar Society for the work to promote the British composer especially abroad. He teaches conducting at Trinity Laban Conservatoire and also teaches at the Royal Academy of Music.

In 2022, Alex was awarded an Honorary ARAM for services to the Royal Academy of Music and Junior Academy.

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Kate Bailey began her violin studies with Pamela Spofforth at the age of nine and was an early member of Pro Corda, where she gained a love of chamber music. While reading music at University College, Oxford, she studied with David Ogden and Emanuel Hurwitz, and then went on to study with Erika Klemperer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.

She is a founder member of The Holywell Ensemble (formed in 1984), a flexible chamber group renowned for its committed and evocative performances of British chamber music on CD and in the concert hall, which was described by the BBC Music Magazine as “one of the most important chamber music groups on the British musical scene.” She also plays in the string quartet OXUS, specialising in approachable contemporary works such as Steve Reich’s Different Trains and Elvis Costello’s The Juliet Letters.

Kate lives in Oxford, and leads various orchestras and chamber orchestras around the area. She is also a freelance orchestral player and has performed a number of concertos, including Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with The Holywell Ensemble and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Violin and Viola with ADMS.

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Michiyo Machida studied at the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music where she completed her BA in Music. She continued her piano studies at Staatliche Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, Germany where she attained an MA with the highest mark. Michiyo has appeared both as a soloist and as part of a chamber group in many concerts in the UK, Germany, and Japan, including a performance of Mozart’s piano concerto in Germany. Her debut recital in Japan was awarded the Art Festival Prize and received many favourable reviews in the press. Some of her solo and chamber performances have been aired on Japanese and German radio (NHK and ZDF respectively). Throughout her career, Michiyo has collaborated with many instrumentalists and singers here and abroad. Alongside teaching for many years, Michiyo has worked as a repetiteur to Abingdon-Witney College singing group, Oxford Touring Opera, Abingdon Operatic Society, Opera Anywhere and Abingdon Gospel Choir in the UK. Currently Michiyo is working with the Albert Park Singers, and since September 2024 with ADMS.