20-21PB Tch&Barber SINGLEPGS - Flipbook - Page 13
GEORGE WALKER
(June 27, 1922-August 23, 2018)
Lyric for Strings
George Walker’s life included a litany of
accomplishments. After graduating early
from high school at age 14 and receiving
a Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin
Conservatory at age 18, he attended the
Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.
He studied piano there with Rudolf Serkin
and composition with Rosario Scalero
who had been Samuel Barber’s teacher
some years prior. Walker graduated from
Curtis in 1945 and became the first black
graduate of the school. He continued
to study composition at Curtis after
graduation to strengthen his craft.
BY THE NUMBERS
Work Composed: As a string
quartet in 1946, and expanded for
string orchestra the same year
World Premiere: Orchestral
version, 1946, in a radio broadcast
with Seymour Lipkin conducting
students of the Curtis Institute of
Music
York Symphony Orchestra
Premiere: This performance
Estimated Duration: ca. 7 minutes
Walker later toured Europe and America as a solo pianist under the
management of National Concert Artists and Columbia Artists. He
went on to earn a diploma at the American Conservatory in Paris and a
doctorate at the Eastman School of Music. Walker also taught at several
prominent schools, including Smith College, the University of Colorado,
Rutgers University, Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and
the University of Delaware. He composed over 90 works and received
commissions from the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra,
Eastman School of Music, and the Kennedy Center for the Performing
Arts. His 1996 work Lilacs for Voice and Orchestra, commissioned by the
Boston Symphony Orchestra, was unanimously voted for the Pulitzer Prize
in music that same year.
TCHAIKOVSKY AND BARBER
It was during this time that Walker composed his Lyric for Strings. The
piece emerged almost identically to Barber’s Adagio by starting it’s “life” as
the middle movement to Walker’s first string quartet. Later the composer
rearranged it into a string-orchestra version for a radio broadcast. Originally
titled Lament, and later Adagio, Walker eventually settled on Lyric. He
dedicated the orchestral version to his maternal grandmother and former
slave, Malvina King. Lyric for Strings has become the composer’s most
frequently performed composition.
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