Mark Walton (born 1957) is a New Zealand clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and musical educator.

Early years

Walton was born in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon River / ...

, growing up in a household with no car, no television nor phone for a time. His early education was at Linwood North School before later attending the

Christchurch School of Music The Christchurch School of Music (CSM) is a music school in Christchurch, New Zealand. The school was founded in 1955 by Robert Perks to provide musical education to primary school children. about CSM The CSM now provides lessons for people of ...

. Walton continued clarinet studies in New York and London from 1975 to 1984, and, after a brief spell back in New Zealand, he left for Sydney, Australia, in 1985.

Music career

Walton was Chair of Woodwind at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music for several years before being appointed Chair of Performance, Outreach and Communications there, posts he held for nearly 20 years until 2006. By 2009, Walton was doing double duty between being the Musical Director of the

in New Zealand, and continuing to hold events and workshops for woodwind musicians across Australia. In January 2012, he taught at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music Winter Academy in Kabul.

Achievements

Walton has established a groundbreaking instrumental music teaching system using video conferencing for young musicians in remote areas of Australia and has set up music programmes in many country areas. Walton has written, compiled or edited for several different publishers over 200 publications, many of which have become standard woodwind teaching repertoire. Recently Mark has devoted considerable time to the composition of children oriented musical productions, such as ''Bobby The Musical'' and ''Leonard and the Lottery Ticket''. He has also recorded numerous solo albums, the most recent being ''High Spirits 2'', a CD of his own compositions.

Honours

In recognition of his work in improving accessibility to music training for remote communities, Walton was awarded the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

medal in 2005. In January 2021 he returned the OAM because he objected to another award recipient being honoured.

References

External links

Christchurch School of MusicAustralian Wind Music Publications
Mark Walton's former publishing company
Mark Walton and Outreach Music
{{DEFAULTSORT:Walton, Mark 1957 births Clarinetists Living people Academic staff of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music 21st-century clarinetists