Walled Brauer algebras as idempotent truncations of level 2 cyclotomic quotients

We realize (via an explicit isomorphism) the walled Brauer algebra for an arbitrary integral parameter delta as an idempotent truncation of a level two cyclotomic degenerate affine walled Brauer algebra. The latter arises naturally in Lie theory as the endomorphism ring of so-called mixed tensor products, i.e. of a parabolic Verma module tensored with some copies of the natural representation and its dual. This provides us a method to construct central elements in the walled Brauer algebras and can be applied to establish the Koszulity of the walled Brauer algebra if delta is not zero.