George Walker
Biographical Information
Introduction:
George Walker is regarded as one of the leading American composers of his generation. He was also a trailblazing Black musician with a groundbreaking career of firsts. The man who would become the first Black composer to win a Pulitzer prize didn’t start out with the goal of becoming a composer. The young Walker dreamed about being a concert pianist, and this was a dream that he accomplished. He was the first Black musician to give a recital at the Town Hall in New York City, the first to perform a piano concerto with the Philadelphia Symphony, and the first to be hired by a major concert management company. However, he grew tired of the grueling schedule that came with being a piano soloist. And he decided to explore his potential as a composer, where he would reach new heights. His music would go on to be performed by almost every major American orchestra, and his musical style was an important development in twentieth-century music. George Walker composed music at the highest artistic standard, and he fought against stereotypes about Black music and Black composers. In one 1998 interview he said, “Each person will come up with his own definition of black music…White persons want to identify a classical composer as being black first, and then infer that he is not original. There is also the expectation that the black composer must reflect what is considered to be indigenous to black persons in this country: jazz, gospel, or pop music…White academics think that there has been only one influence in the black community and that its origins are jazz and gospel music. They are obviously ignorant of the culture existing in the 1930’s and 40’s…. where virtually every Black family in my acquaintance felt that classical music offered something special, something that could be considered as culture.”
Early Life and Origins:
During the Jim Crow Era, many states in the South enacted a legal system of segregation on the basis of race. Segregation and other racist policies created barriers that made it difficult for Black Americans to find good jobs or gain access to important professional opportunities. Black Americans still made their way into a middle-class lifestyle, even with all these obstacles. For example, many Black Americans found good jobs within the federal civil service. The federal government had no segregation for the first three decades of the Jim Crow Era. It would become a major employer for Black professionals in a time when other opportunities were limited. Tragically, this started to unravel when President Woodrow Wilson introduced segregation in 1913. But the legacy of a non-segregated federal government was important for the Black middle class in Washington D.C. Higher paying “white-collar” or professional jobs brought wealth and prosperity to those who held them. This wealth translated into hundreds of Black-owned banks, newspapers, hotels, and businesses. U Street in Washington D.C. became an important center of education, entrepreneurship, and culture for the largest community of Black professionals in the United States.
George Walker was born into this thriving, Black, and middle-class community in Washington D.C. His father was a doctor who had immigrated from the West Indies, and his mother was a musicologist. He started taking piano lessons at a young age, and he recalled the importance of music in his childhood. In the same interview from earlier, he said, “My parents had a great love of music….It was important to them that my sister, Frances, and I have good exposure to music… I was aware that there were many families who felt the same as my parents did about providing music lessons for their children. There was a piano in virtually every one of my friends’ homes.” The young Walker was a piano prodigy and a very talented organist. He would attend the Dunbar High School and would take piano lessons and music classes at Howard University. He was already thinking about college when he was 13 years old, and he decided to pursue a career in music.
Career and Legacy
George Walker enrolled at the Oberlin Conservatory when he was only 14 years old. And he would graduate with a Bachelors of Music and high honors when he was only 18. Walker continued to focus on his dream of becoming a concert pianist at the Curtis Institute. He embarked on his career as a concert pianist shortly after becoming the first Black musician to graduate from Curtis with an Artist Diploma. He would eventually go on tour in Europe. But he fell very ill, and became disillusioned with being a full-time concert pianist.
Walker would pursue a doctorate at the Eastman School of Music, where he would become the first Black student to obtain a DMA in piano performance. He would then win a Fulbright Scholarship that allowed him to study composition with Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory in France. Nadia Boulanger was one of the most important composition teachers of the twentieth century. She taught Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Astor Piazzolla, Philip Glass, and hundreds of other famous composers. She was very impressed with Walker’s abilities. In fact, she was so impressed that she exempted him from the rigorous gauntlet of counterpoint exercise that she forced most of her students to endure. Walker saw her as an important mentor, and described her as the first person who truly believed that he could have a major career as a composer.
George Walker drew from many sources in his compositions, including spirituals and jazz. Talking about this, he said, “They have been used to bring a sense of Americana to what I have written. They define my attachment to melodies that I value, not as a generic experience, but a personal experience….These are extensions of my musical background from a home filled with Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, Chopin, folk songs from all countries, spirituals, and hymns.” George Walker’s career as a composer would be monumental. He would compose over eighty works that would be performed by almost every major American orchestra. He would win a Pulitzer Prize for music, and countless other fellowships and awards. He would also become a professor at Rutgers University, the University of Delaware, the University of Colorado, the Peabody Institute of John Hopkins University.
Resources:
Terry, Mickey Thomas, et al. “An Interview with George Walker.” The Musical Quarterly, vol. 84, no. 3, 2000, pp. 372–88. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/742584. Accessed 12 Apr. 2024.
Yellin, Eric S. . "Segregation in Federal Government". In obo in African American Studies. 12 Apr. 2024.
Oxford Link: https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780190280024/obo-9780190280024-0022.xml
NPR Article:
Los Angeles Public Library Biography:
https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/george-walker-african-american-composer
George Washington University Article:
https://blogs.gwu.edu/himmelfarb/2022/02/23/african-americans-historical-washington-d-c/
Composer Interview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYnEXI3WyRQ
