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Allan Walker began his musical career as a pianist after completing a BMus at Melbourne University studying with Ronald Farren-Price. As a performer he worked with contemporary music groups New Audience Ensemble, Pipeline, Ozdimo and with Melbourne's Astra Choir.

An interest in composing led him in 1984 to the Music Department at La Trobe University to study with Keith Humble. His MA combined composition with a dissertation on twelve-tone strategies in Arnold Schoenberg's Genesis Prelude. Allan was appointed as lecturer in La Trobe's Music Department and taught there until its closure in 1999. During that time he taught tonal and post-tonal theory, composition, ear training and in the legendary 'improv labs'. He subsequently taught at the Victorian College of the Arts, the Queensland Conservatorium and the Australian National University. Allan maintains an interest in academic scholarship. His most recent research includes work on the late music of Keith Humble (published in Modernism in Australian Music, 1950-2000).

His compositions draw on the 'modernist' post-tonal tradition. An interest in jazz and improvisation is reflected in earlier instrumental pieces such as S/H, Variations: a pinch of salt and Pas de Deux. More recent projects have focused on voices and texts, including choral works written for Melbourne's Astra choir (Mein Blaues Klavier, Sea of Tranquillity and Three Proemes of Francis Ponge) and compositions for soprano and chamber ensemble (Songs of Innocence, Dransfield Settings).

His pieces have been performed and commissioned by Australia's leading ensembles and performers, including the Astra Choir, Pipeline Contemporary Music Ensemble, Miwako Abe, Michael Kieran Harvey, Mardi McSullea, Daryl Pratt and Simone de Haan. They have been broadcast by the ABC and published by Currency Press and Red House.

Allan's work is supported by Melbourne's Meat Market Studio Program.

Allan Walker — current to September 2026