George Walker papers

George Theophilus Walker (1922-2018) was born in Washington, D.C., on June 27, 1922 to George T., a physician, and Rosa King Walker. George T. Walker immigrated to the United States from Jamaica and attended Temple University School of Medicine (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania).

George Theophilus Walker began taking piano lessons at the age of five. He graduated from Dunbar High School (Washington, D.C.) when he was 14 and won a scholarship to attend the Oberlin Conservatory of Music (Oberlin, Ohio). While a student at the Conservatory, he also served as organist for the Graduate School of Theology at Oberlin College. After graduating from Oberlin in 1941, Walker enrolled at the Curtis Institute of Music (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), where he studied with Rudolf Serkin, William Primrose, Gregor Piatigorsky, and Rosario Scalero. There he earned degrees in both piano and composition in 1945 and was the first Black graduate of the Curtis Institute. Following graduation, he was the first Black instrumentalist to perform at Town Hall in New York City (New York) and with the Philadelphia Orchestra (Pennsylvania). In 1955, he enrolled in the Eastman School of Music (Rochester, New York), and he became the first African American person to earn a doctoral degree from that institution in 1956.

Following completion of his doctorate, Walker received both a Fulbright Fellowship and a John Hay Whitney Fellowship and spent two years in Paris (France) studying with composer Nadia Boulanger. Walker held numerous teaching positions following his return to the United States, including at Dillard University (New Orleans, Louisiana) in 1954, Smith College (Northampton, Massachusetts) from 1961-1968, and Rutgers University at Newark (New Jersey) from 1969-1992. He was the first Black tenured faculty member at Smith College. His "Lyric for Strings," originally written in 1946, became one of the most frequently performed works composed by an American. He won numerous awards as a result of his work, including two Guggenheim Fellowships (1969 and 1987), and became the first African American to win a Pulitzer Prize in Music in 1996 for his composition "Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra."

Walker was married to Helen Siemens from 1960-1970 and the couple had two children: Gregory Walker, a violinist and educator, and Ian Walker, a playwright. George Theophilus Walker died from complications relating to kidney disease in 2018.