Improvising with Insight: How Musical Mastery Fuels Business Innovation

Kim Walker, internationally acclaimed bassoonist, educator, and consultant, will present on Improvising with Insight: How Musical Mastery Fuels Business Innovation.

Kim Walker is recognized as one of the world’s leading bassoonists, and one of the leading soloists of her generation, having performed on six continents and recorded more than 30 CDs as a soloist and chamber musician.

She was a regular guest artist with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society from 1993 to 2005 and has collaborated with the Guarneri Quartet, as well as with Menahem Pressler, David Schiffrin, Joseph Silverstein and many other leading musicians. She has served as principal bassoon with the Montreal Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, among others, and played under the batons of Leonard Bernstein, Antal Dorati, Sir George Solti, and Sir Simon Rattle.

Kim’s leadership journey includes senior roles at leading institutions across the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia. She has served as Director of Arts & Cultural Outreach and Associate Dean of Research at Indiana University, Dean and Cultural Ambassador at the University of Sydney, and Director of the School of Music at Texas Tech University. In these positions, she drove organizational change, implemented innovative talent development strategies, and built cross-functional teams that delivered measurable impact.

As a pedagogue she has enjoyed serving as Professor of Bassoon in venerable institutions such as the Geneva Conservatoire, at Indiana University, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Texas Tech University and as a distinguished guest professor at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music.