b'Program NotesGeorge WalkerBorn June 27, 1922, Washington, DCDied August 23, 2018, Montclair, NJLyric for StringsIn memory of my grandmother, Malvina KingComposed 1946 in PhiladelphiaRadio Premiere 1946Curtis Institute string orchestra;Seymour Lipkin, conductorInstrumentation StringsDuration 6 minutesGeorge Walkers Lyric for Strings first existed as the second movement of his String Quartet No. 1, composed in 1946 during his post-graduate studies at the Curtis Institute of Music. Walker arranged the movement for string orchestra shortly after its composition, and it had its premiere the same year in a radio broadcast conducted by Seymour Lipkin with a string orchestra of Curtis students. The first live performance came the following winter as part of the American Music Festival at the Mellon Art Gallery (now the National Gallery of Art) in Washington, DC.Walker originally entitled the work Lament and dedicated it to the memory of his grandmother Malvina King, who had passed away around the time of its composition. He later revised the title to Adagio for String Orchestra before finally settling on Lyric for Strings. Lyric seems to me an apt description of this music, which expresses more of a feeling of loving memory and reflection than of painful loss. More than sixty years later, in 2009, Walker wrote in his memoir Reminiscences of an American Composer and Pianist that Lyric for Strings was the most performed work by any living composer.George Walkers extraordinary life, spanning nearly the last hundred years, bears testament to his musical genius as well as to both the improving circumstances of Black Americans and the ongoing limitations imposed by systemic racism and racial prejudice. His father emigrated, alone and without princetonsymphony.org/ 11'