VPR.org: George Walker successfully balanced three careers, one as a world-renowned pianist, one as a sought after professor and another as a prolific composer

George Walker (1922-2018)
(Barbara Steinberg / CC-BY-SA)

Vermont Public Radio

By James Stewart • Feb 22, 2021 

George Walker was born in DC in 1922. His father emigrated from Jamaica to study and become a physician. George’s mother, Rosa King, was his first piano teacher when he was only five years old. Walker was exceptionally bright. He attended Howard University while still in high school and graduated from Oberlin College at the age of 18. He went on the study at the Curtis Institute of Music taking piano from Rudolf Serkin and composition from Samuel Barber. George Walker was one of the first African-Americans to graduate from Curtis and later the first to earn a doctorate from Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

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In 1957, Walker was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship which allowed him to spend two years in Paris studying with Nadia Boulanger.

As a professor, George Walker taught at Dillard University in New Orleans, Smith College, the University of Colorado Boulder and Rutgers, just to name a few. He was a guest lecturer and gave masterclasses at many, many more.

George Walker successfully balanced three careers, one as a world-renowned pianist, one as a sought after professor and another as a prolific composer.

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Walker had a long successful career as a composer. In 1996, He was awarded the Pulitzer Price in Music for Lilacs, a piece for voice and orchestra. George Walker died in 2018, at the age of 96.

Read Walker’s story in his own words. Check out his autobiography Reminiscences of an American Composer and Pianist and follow the Timeline at VPR.org/timeline.