I wonder if George Walker – born on this date in 1922 – ever gets tired of reading that he was the first African American to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music? It is generally the first thing we read about him. What makes it especially remarkable is that it occurred as recently as 1996. But Walker is so much more than a statistic.
The composer, who makes his home in Montclair, NJ, was recognized by the Pulitzer committee for “Lilacs,” four songs for soprano and orchestra, after the poetry of Walt Whitman. The work was given its premiere by Faye Robinson and the Boston Symphony, under the direction of Seiji Ozawa.
60 years earlier, he gave his first public performance as a pianist, at the age of 14. He studied piano at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia with Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski. He also studied composition there with Rosario Scalero. Later, he went to Paris for additional studies with Robert Casadesus and Nadia Boulanger. He was good enough a pianist that he performed the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Walker has produced an impressive body of work, over a career which has spanned nearly 80 years. The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra gave the world premiere of his Sinfonia No. 4, “Strands,” as part of its 2011-12 season. In 2009-10, the Philadelphia Orchestra gave the world premiere of his Violin Concerto, with the composer’s son, Gregory, as the soloist. On a separate series of concerts, the orchestra also performed “Lilacs.”
However, it is for a work Walker composed while still a student at Curtis that he is probably best-known. The “Lyric for Strings,” dedicated to the memory of the composer’s grandmother, is touching in its simplicity. It deserves to be as widely played as Barber’s “Adagio,” although Walker’s is quite a different piece. The tender recollection manages to be moving without all the hand wringing and angst.
In an interview given in 2012, Walker commented, “I’ve always thought in universal terms, not just what is black or what is American, but simply what has quality.”
Happy birthday, George Walker!
“Lyric,” in its original version for string quartet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W17alPNaVfY
“Lilacs,” with Faye Robinson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ScgQUzMqhg&list=PLdBmNPZATi4xJ-5iSf7vNLfmErvsoOsP1
Brief 2012 documentary on Walker, in which he is interviewed, for the occasion of his 90th birthday: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYnEXI3WyRQ
An interview he gave with the Detroit Free Press earlier this year: http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/music/2015/03/03/george-walker-classical-roots-dso/24332241/
