Emeritus Professor Peter Walls, ONZM, Wellington
For services to music. Emeritus Professor Peter Walls is currently the Chief Executive of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He retires in December 2011 after having held the position for nine and a half years. Before taking up his position at the NZSO, he was Professor of Music at Victoria University of Wellington. He is a conductor, and is currently the Music Director of the Opus Orchestra based in Hamilton. He has published several books and numerous articles, mainly on historical performance practice in music and has served on advisory boards for various international publications. He was a trustee of the New Zealand String Quartet from 2002 to 2011. He is currently on the Music Advisory Committee of the Lilburn Trust, and chaired the selection panel of the Patricia Pratt Scholarship from its inauguration in 1997 until 2010. He has been Chair of the Tertiary Education Commission’s PBRF Creative Performing Arts Panel since 2003. In 1998 he received the British Academy Derek Allen Prize and the Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award. Professor Walls was made an Oxford Visiting Fellow and Waynflete Lecturer at Magdalen College in 2000 and was awarded the title of Emeritus Professor by the Victoria University of Wellington in 2006.