Hailed as a “Modern Day Maestro,” William Garfield Walker is currently the music director and chief conductor of the Nova Orchester Wien (NOW!), Vienna’s newest professional orchestra. With NOW!, Walker performed for royalty and ambassadors at the G20 Economic Forum. He also serves as the artistic director and conductor of the Master Camerata Orchestra, the professional orchestra of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra’s Premier Orchestral Institute, an international summer music festival. Previously, he served as principal conductor of the Moonlight Symphony Orchestra, the Royal College of Music Oratorio Society. He founded the Virtuoso Philharmonic of Chicago at the age of 20.

In 2020, Walker was selected by the American Austrian Foundation and members of the Vienna Philharmonic for the prestigious AAF Ansbacher/Farber Conducting Fellowship. Other honors include conducting fellowships at the Aspen Music Festival and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. In March 2020, a resolution “commending the musical genius of Mr. William Garfield Walker and congratulating him as an accomplished orchestral conductor” was passed by the Mississippi House of Representatives in a unanimous bipartisan vote.