![]() George Theophilus Walker, African American Composer & Pianist at AfriClassical.2012 George Walker interview by Ethan Iverson.George Walker interview by Bruce Duffie.A 2017 Conversation with George Walker (includes video excerpts) Archived at the Wayback Machine.↑ George Walker, Trailblazing American Composer, Dies At 96.↑ Walker, George (2009) Reminiscences of an American Composer and Pianist, Scarecrow Press, p."Reminiscences of an American Composer and Pianist, By George Walker, 9780810869400 | Rowman & Littlefield". ![]() ↑ "George Walker: Prominent Composer & Washingtonian Grew Up on Sherman Avenue".↑ "American Academy of Arts and Letters – Current Members"."George Theophilus Walker: February's Contemporary Composer". ↑ "Walker, George Theophilus (1922- ) – The Black Past: Remembered and Reclaimed".Walker died on Augfrom a fall at a hospital in Montclair, New Jersey at the age of 96. Walker was the father of two sons, violinist and composer Gregory T.S. His autobiography, "Reminiscences of an American Composer and Pianist", was released in 2009 by Scarecrow Press. Mayor Marion Barry proclaimed Jas “George Walker Day”. The following year, Walker was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. Walker was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999. Composer and pianist George Walker was born in Washington, DC, where he received his first musical training from his mother. A string orchestra arrangement of the second movement of that work received its world premiere in a radio broadcast that was conducted by pianist Seymour Lipkin. In 1946, Walker composed his String Quartet no. Louis, Williams College and Montclair State University. Walker taught music at Columbia University, Wayne State University, Wellesley College, Temple University, Washington University in St. In a day of Total Immersion, the BBC Symphony Orchestra explores the enduring voice and turbulent times of a composer who wrote without compromise. He received the Pulitzer for his work Lilacs in 1996. George Walker was a giant of American music. He was the first to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. 4.George Theophilus Walker (J– August 23, 2018) was an African-American composer, educator and autobiographer. THE CONNECTION – These concerts represent the Utah Symphony first performances of George Walker’s Sinfonia No. THE WORLD – Elsewhere in 2012, Queen Elizabeth celebrated her diamond jubilee, Hurricane Sandy rocked the US coast, the Transit of Venus occurred, and the Mayan Calendar ended without event. 4 when he made this apt observation in 2020 and his relatively recent awareness of Walker’s music mirrors our own. In a different interview, this one not of Walker but about him two years after his death, Sir Simon Rattle described Walker’s music as not “avant-garde” but “tough, strong, deeply felt, extraordinarily well put-together and absolutely his own voice.” Maestro Rattle was referring specifically to the Sinfonia No. To reinforce the music’s generally mosaic texture, two spirituals, “There is a Balm in Gilead” and “Roll, Jordan, Roll” are quoted, sometimes in a series of subtle instrumental handoffs. 4 to be more than an “overture or extended fanfare”. Walker described the piece as “complex, intense and compact” and added that he wanted his Sinfonia No. This descriptive name refers to the interwoven melodic and thematic threads that course through the work’s 11-minute progress. Commissioned by the New Jersey, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and National symphonies in celebration of the composer’s 90th birthday, Sinfonia No. 4 in 2012 (which precipitated the interview quoted above). Sprinkled throughout Walker’s catalogue of orchestral works are five Sinfonias, the last of the set being the final work he wrote before he died in 2018. THE HISTORY – “I was taught in more universal terms,” stated Walker in an interview for State of the Arts New Jersey in 2012, “not just what is black, or what is American, but simply what has quality.” As an unintentional pioneer in a field already centuries old, Walker knew his music would be judged harshly for any perceived lack of seriousness and worked hard to create pieces that could exist independently of expectations based on his heritage.
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