George Walker was the first African-American recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Music – as recently as 1996 – for his work, “Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra.” He was the first black pianist to present a solo recital at New York’s Town Hall (in 1945). He was the first black performer to appear as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra (performing Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3). He was the first black musician to graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music (where he studied with Rudolf Serkin and Rosario Scalero).
Walker died on August 23, 2018, at the age of 96. This Sunday night on “The Lost Chord,” we’ll honor this trailblazing artist with a program of four of his original works, including his Piano Sonata No. 2 (with the composer himself at the keyboard), the award-winning “Lilacs” (after poetry of Walt Whitman), “Address for Orchestra,” and “Lyric for Strings,” his most famous music, in its original version for string quartet.
Born in Washington, D.C., Walker was a longtime resident of Montclair, NJ. His father emigrated from Kingston, Jamaica, to study at Temple University School of Medicine; Walker’s mother supervised his first piano lessons. He was admitted to the Oberlin School of Music at the age of 14. He was then admitted to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, and later attended the Eastman School. For two years, he studied in Paris with the famed pedagogue Nadia Boulanger.
Walker’s own academic career included posts with Dillard University in New Orleans, the Dalcroze School of Music, the New School for Social Research, Smith College, the University of Colorado Boulder, Rutgers University (where he served as chairman of the music department), the Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University, and the University of Delaware.
He was the father of two sons, violinist and composer Gregory T.S. Walker and playwright Ian Walker. His sister, the pianist, Frances Walker-Slocum, died on June 9 at the age of 94.
The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, which has played a number of the composer’s pieces over the years, has announced that it will be adding “Lyric for Strings” to its opening concerts, October 5th through October 7th, to be performed in Newark and New Brunswick. Also on the program will be the U.S. premiere of Kate Whitley’s “Speak Out” and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9. Find out more at njsymphony.org.
Then join me for “Perambulations with Walker,” this Sunday night at 10:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.
