And I think, along with that, you're able to maintain an element of artistic control. "Didn't know about it until it was too late," the younger Walker deadpans. Violinist Gregory Walker didn't even know about it until the finished score showed up in the mail. Yet only now - at the age of 87 - has George Walker written a work for his son. His music has been performed by many of this country's top orchestras - he's got more than 80 commissions and a Pulitzer Prize to his name. George Walker has helped blaze a trail for African-American classical composers. Subjects: African American History, People Terms: United States - Colorado, 20th Century (1900-1999), North America-Jamaica, Gender - Men, United States-Washington D.George Walker is insisting that his son, Gregory Walker, play a new violin concerto he's written. Walker was 96 years old at the time of his passing. George Theophilus Walker passed away in Montclair, New Jersey on August 23, 2018. His son, Ian Walker, is a playwright, actor, and director in San Francisco. Walker delivered the commencement address at the Eastman School of Music in 2012 where he received a Doctor of Music degree.Īt 87, he wrote a violin concerto for his son Gregory, violinist and composer, who premiered it in 2009. He was a member of the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. Walker became the first Black composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, for his Lilacs, which was premiered earlier that year by soprano Faye Robinson and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.Īmong his many honors are Fulbright, Guggenheim, and NEA awards seven honorary doctoral degrees, and the most recent honor, the Aaron Copland Award from ASCAP, 2012. Walker’s Lyric for Strings, written in 1941 as a memorial to his grandmother, is the most frequently performed music by a living American composer. Commissions began to arrive from symphony orchestras and many others, followed by performances and recordings. Natalie Hinderas, a leading African American pianist, also championed his piano works on her national tours. In the 1970s, African American conductor Paul Freeman began to issue recordings of Walker’s orchestral music. Publication with General Music Publishing, a leading classical music publishing house, was crucial to his finally gaining critical recognition. Paul Kapp, at General Music Publishing, was the first to publish the bulk of his work in 1971. Over his career, Walker published over 90 works including sonatas for piano, a mass cantata, songs, organ pieces, choral works, sonatas for cello, violin and viola, and works for brass and woodwinds. He became a Distinguished Professor there in 1976 and retired from its faculty in 1992. He was appointed Chair of the Music Department, Rutgers University-Newark in 1975. His academic appointments include professorships at Smith College in Massachusetts, the University of Colorado, and the University of Delaware where he held the first Minority Chair at that institution. In 1957, he traveled to study in France including privately with Nadia Boulanger. Walker then attended Eastman School of Music where he received a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in 1956. That year his New York debut recital in Town Hall was followed by another debut where he played the 3rd Piano Concerto of Rachmaninoff with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He studied under Serkin, Horszowski, Piatigorsky, and Primrose. Walker entered the Curtis Institute of Music, and in 1945 became its first Black student to graduate.
He grew to love music and entered Oberlin School of Music at 14, receiving a B.M. His mother began his obligatory piano lessons at five years old. His father emigrated from Jamaica and became a prominent physician. George Theophilus Walker was born June 27, 1922, in Washington, D.C. 4 (Strands), premiered in 2012 by the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. His prolific career continued into his 90s with his commissioned Sinfonia No. Winning the Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of the multitude of richly deserved tributes to composer, pianist, and educator George Theophilus Walker.
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