Chris Walton (*1963 in England) studied at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Zurich and held a postdoc Humboldt Fellowship at Munich University. He was head of Music Division at the Zentralbibliothek Zürich from 1990 to 2001. He also lectured at ETH Zurich and worked as an occasional freelance répétiteur and continuo player. He was appointed Professor and Head of Music Department at the University of Pretoria in 2001. Today he lectures in music history at the Musikhochschule Basel. He is an Honorary Member of the Allgemeine Musikgesellschaft Zürich and was awarded the Max Geilinger Prize in 2009 for his contribution to Swiss-British cultural ties.

Chris Walton is a music historian. He has published several books, many articles and reviews. His main research areas are Austro-German Romantic music from 1820 to 1950, Swiss music, and South African music. His books include biographies of the Swiss composers Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957) and Richard Flury (1896-1967), a study of Richard Wagner’s Zurich years, and a study of composers and their inspiration from Wagner to Alban Berg, Lies and Epiphanies, which has now been published in German translation.
Together with Stephanus Muller, Walton has edited two books on South African music: A Composer in Africa: Essays on the Life and Work of Stefans Grové and Gender and Sexuality in South African Music.
Walton has contributed articles to the New Grove, Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart, the Cambridge Wagner Encylopedia and other reference works. He is currently running a research project on Richard Wagner and the Austro-German conducting tradition at the Bern University of the Arts.