Bio
Flautist (historical & modern), Educator & Author
Elizabeth Walker is a flautist of exceptional breadth, equally at home across the full historical spectrum of the instrument – from renaissance flute and recorder to baroque, classical, and modern flute.
Since 2024 she has held the position of Principal Flute and Recorder with the Monteverdi Choir and Orchestra and its associated ensembles, the English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, working at the highest level of historically informed performance under conductors of international renown.
Her playing has been praised by critics across Europe. The Guardian described her recorder playing as “simply exquisite,” while Operalogue singled her out among “outstanding players of the English Baroque Soloists” for responding to Christophe Rousset’s direction “with appropriate festive verve.”
Elizabeth’s training spans the full range of historical and modern flutes. She studied at the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and at postgraduate level at the Koninklijk Conservatorium in The Hague, working with Nancy Hadden (renaissance flute), Stephen Preston and Wilbert Hazelzet (baroque and eight-keyed classical flute), Kathryn Lukas and Margaret Ogonovsky (modern flute), and Philip Pickett and Ricardo Kanji (recorder).
As a recording artist, her solo album of the Telemann 12 Fantasias, earned widespread acclaim, described by the British Flute Society as “as perfect a demonstration of the modern wooden flute’s capabilities as one could wish to hear.” She is an Artist for Pearl Flute, Europe.
Elizabeth’s commitment to education is equally distinguished. Her study books Baroque Flute Studies and Baroque Studies for Modern Flute each won the NFA Award for Best Flute Method (2015 and 2017 respectively), and her most recent publication, Melodies for Baroque Tone and Interpretation (2025), continues this work. She has also arranged and published music for flute and piano, including her widely performed Four Strauss Songs (Alry Publications).
Since 2016, Elizabeth has directed Flutes in Tuscany, an international residential course that has attracted participants from around the world and grown consistently year on year. She also taught for many years at Wells Cathedral Specialist Music School.