Alan Walker

Alan Walker is Professor Emeritus of Music at McMaster University, Canada. Before settling in North America he was on the staff of the Music Division of the British Broadcasting Corporation in London. He has broadcast for the BBC, the CBC, and for CJRT - FM (Toronto), and gives regular public lectures on the music of the Romantic Era. His thirteen published books include A Study in Musical Analysis, An Anatomy of Musical Criticism, and symposia on Chopin, Schumann, and Liszt.

Dr. Walker is the author of a three-volume, prize-winning biography of Franz Liszt, published by Alfred A. Knopf (New York), and Faber & Faber (London), a project which took him twenty-five years to complete, and for which the President of Hungary bestowed on him the medal Pro Cultura Hungarica. The biography also received the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize, presented by HRH The Duke of Kent in London. Time Magazine hailed the biography as "a textured portrait of Liszt and his times without rival". The Wall Street Journal called it "The definitive work to which all subsequent Liszt biographies will aspire." The Washington Post selected it as a Book of the Year.

His latest book is called "The Death of Franz Liszt" (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY). It describes the last ten days of the composer's life in Bayreuth. Based on eye-witness accounts, and the unpublished diary of a pupil, it tells a harrowing story of the final illness, medical malpractice, family neglect, and a callous disregard of Liszt's final wishes.

His latest book, “Reflections on Liszt,” is a series of essays that tell us about the phenomenon that was Franz Liszt, and also about the musical and cultural life of nineteenth-century Europe. It concerns aspects of Liszt’s life and work that he was unable to explore in his Liszt biography. Topics include Liszt’s contributions to the Lied, the lifelong impact of his encounter with Beethoven, his influence on students who became famous in their own right, his accomplishments in transcribing and editing the works of other composers, and his innovative piano technique. One chapter is devoted to the Sonata in B Minor.

In keeping with his interest in the Romantic Age, Alan Walker directs the annual "The Great Romantics" international festivals for the City of Hamilton, Ontario, in association with the American Liszt Society and McMaster University.