Walker, George, 1922-2018

George Theophilus Walker; June 27, 1922, Washington, DC – August 23, 2018, Montclair, NJ; father, physician emigrated from Jamaca; mother, Rosa King; started piano at age 5; attended Dunbar High School in Washington, DC; Howard University hosted first public recital at age 14 in the university's Andrew Rankin Memorial Chapel; attended Oberlin Conservatory (at University), was organist for the Graduate School of Theology of Oberlin College; graduated age 18 from Oberlin with the highest honors in his Conservatory class; attended 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, graduated in 1945 as one of first black graduates; balanced a career as a concert pianist, teacher, and composer; taught at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana; entered the Doctor of Musical Arts degree program at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music in 1955, became first black recipient of a doctoral degree, 1956; awarded both a Fulbright Fellowship and a John Hay Whitney Fellowship in 1957; studyed composition with Nadia Boulanger; faculty appointments to the Dalcroze School of Music, the New School for Social Research, Smith College (1961–68) where he became the first tenured black faculty member, University of Colorado Boulder (1968–69), Rutgers University (1969–92), the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University (1975–78), and the University of Delaware (1975–76); 1996, Walker became the first black composer to receive the Pulitzer Prize In Music for his work, Lilacs;