George Walker (composer)

Walker's music was influenced by a wide variety of musical styles including jazz, folk songs, and church hymns, as well as classical music. Unwilling to conform to a specific style, Walker drew from his diverse knowledge of previous music to create something which he could call his own. While a work such as Spatials for Piano uses twelve-tone serial techniques, Walker could also compose in the style of popular music such as in his song “Leaving.” According to Mickey Terry, traces of old black spirituals can also be found in his Violin Sonata No. 2. D. Maxine Sims has stated that Walker's piano technique is also reflected in his works, such as his Piano Sonata No. 2. This sonata contains changing meters, syncopation, and bitonal writing which all present great challenges for a performer to overcome. BBC Radio 3 devoted five hours to Walker's music as "Composer of the Week" in October, 2021.

Walker was the father of two sons, violinist and composer Gregory Walker, and playwright Ian Walker. He died on August 23, 2018 in Montclair, New Jersey at the age of 96.

His autobiography, Reminiscences of an American Composer and Pianist, was released in 2009 by Scarecrow Press.

Over the next several years, he received the Dorothy Maynor Outstanding Arts Citizen Award (2000), Classical Roots Award from the Detroit Symphony (2001), the A.I. Dupont Award from the Delaware Symphony (2002) the Washington Music Hall of Fame (2002), and the Aaron Copland ASCAP Award (2012). He was the recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships, two Rockefeller Fellowships, a Fromm Foundation commission, two Koussevitsky Awards, and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award, as well as honorary doctorate degrees from Lafayette College (1982), Oberlin College (1983), Bloomfield College (1996), Montclair State University(1997), Curtis Institute of Music (1997), Spelman College (2001), and the Eastman School of Music where he gave the Commencement Address (2012).

In 1998, he received the Composers Award from the Lancaster Symphony and the letter of Distinction from the American Music Center for "his significant contributions to the field of contemporary American Music". He was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999. The following year, George Walker was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. [Walker Autobiography, p. 164]

In 1996, Walker became the first black composer to receive the Pulitzer Prize in Music for his work, Lilacs for voice and orchestra, premiered by the Boston Symphony, Seiji Ozawa conducting. Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry proclaimed June 17, 1997, as "George Walker Day" in the nation's capital.

In 1997, Walker was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt.

Walker was first exposed to music at the age of five when he began to play the piano. He was admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory at 14, and later to the Curtis Institute of Music to study piano with Rudolf Serkin, chamber music with William Primrose and Gregor Piatigorsky, and composition with Rosario Scalero, teacher of Samuel Barber. He received his doctorate from the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester. Walker taught at Rutgers University in New Jersey for several years, retiring in 1992.

George Theophilus Walker (June 27, 1922 – August 23, 2018) was an American composer, pianist, and organist, and the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, which he received for his work Lilacs in 1996. Walker was married to pianist and scholar Helen Walker-Hill (May 26, 1936 – August 8, 2013) between 1960 and 1975. Walker was the father of two sons, violinist and composer Gregory T.S. Walker and playwright Ian Walker.