Stephen Walt

Stephen Walt is principal bassoonist with the Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra and the Berkshire Bach Ensemble and is a member of the Avanti Wind Quintet. Mr. Walt has been on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst since 1999 and is Director of Woodwind Chamber Music at Williams College. He has performed with orchestras, opera companies and chamber music ensembles throughout the eastern United States, including performances with the Borromeo, Muir, Leontovych and Shanghai String Quartets. Mr. Walt has been guest artist at the Manchester, Monadnock, Musicorda and Hampton-Sydney Festivals, the Music Festival of the Hamptons (NY), Music From Greer (AZ) and has appeared on the Mohawk Trail Concerts. In addition, Mr. Walt is a member of the faculty at the Chamber Music Conference of the East. His primary teachers were Sherman Walt and Arthur Weisberg. He has recorded for CRI, Decca, Naxos, Gasparo, Nonesuch and Albany Records. Mr. Walt was founder and Co-Director of Williamstown Chamber Concerts from 1988 to 2006.

Mr. Walt plays on a Heckel bassoon made in 1958 for his father, Sherman Walt, the eminent former principal bassoonist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The instrument is nicknamed "The Brussels" as it was exhibited at the 1958 World's Fair in that city as an example of German artisanship.