George Walker (composer)

George Theophilus Walker (born June 27, 1922) is an African-American composer, the first to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He received the Pulitzer for his work Lilacs in 1996.

Walker is the father of two sons, violinist and composer Gregory T.S. Walker, and playwright Ian Walker.

George Theophilus Walker was born in Washington, D.C. on June 27. His father emigrated from Kingston, Jamaica to the United States where he became a physician after graduating from Temple University School of Medicine. Walker's mother, Rosa King, supervised her son's first piano lessons when he was five years old. His first teacher was Miss Mary L. Henry. Mrs. Lillian Mitchell Allen, who had earned a doctorate in music education, became his second piano teacher. Before graduating Dunbar High School, George Walker was presented in his first public recital at age 14 at Howard University's Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel.

He was admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory that same year, where he studied piano with David Moyer and organ with Arthur Poister. In 1939, he became the organist for the Graduate School of Theology of Oberlin College. Graduating at 18 from Oberlin College with the highest honors in his Conservatory class, he was admitted 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 graduated from the Curtis Institute with Artist Diplomas in piano and composition in 1945, becoming the first black graduate of the music school.

Walker was presented in a debut recital in Manhattan's Town Hall. With this "notable" debut, as it was described by the New York Times, he became the first black instrumentalist to perform in that hall. Over the course of the next five decades, he balanced a career as a concert pianist, teacher, and composer. Two weeks after his New York debut, he performed Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy as the winner of the Philadelphia Youth Auditions.

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