FredericWake-Walker

Frederic Wake-Walker is a director and producer of opera and contemporary music theatre, renowned for his groundbreaking work at major international opera houses and in unconventional spaces.

He was awarded Best Director at the inaugural Oper! Awards in 2019 for his productions of Peter Grimes at Oper Köln and Ariadne auf Naxos at La Scala, Milan. He has worked with world-class conductors such as Franz Welser-Möst, Robin Ticciati, Trevor Pinnock, Francois-Xavier Roth and Danielle Gatti. His films with the Deutsche-Symphonie Orchester were described by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung as creating “a new artform.”

As founding Artistic Director of Mahogany Opera, Wake-Walker specialises in creating new, site-responsive work with a diverse range of composers and makers; redefining how and where opera is made and who it is for. Lost in Thought by Rolf Hind, the world’s first meditation opera, premiered at the Barbican before being part of the inaugural season at the Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg. Dido’s Ghost by Errollyn Wallen (incorporating Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas) also premiered at the Barbican and has since performed at the Edinburgh International Festival and with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, San Francisco.

Many of the projects with Mahogany bring professional and non-professional artists together in inclusive settings. He conceived the award-winning Snappy Operas programme which has engaged thousands of Primary School children across the UK and, increasingly, internationally. His passion for opening up opera to young people stems from his own childhood experiences of singing in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Noye’s Fludde and Midsummer Night’s Dream at Snape Maltings.

As a founding member of the multi-disciplinary arts collective, Mica Moca, he has directed and curated large-scale events in forests, airports and warehouses in Berlin and Paris.

Frederic Wake-Walker’s practice explores the space between the real and the theatrical, the ancient and the new, the performer and the audience. He is admired for nurturing supportive and trusting environments that allow generosity, curiosity and creativity to flourish.