b'Program Notescontinuedfriends or resources, to the United States from Jamaica and worked his way through Temple University Medical School to become a highly respected doctor and preeminent member of the Washington, DC Black community. At a time when the American Medical Association refused membership to Black physicians, Dr. George T. Walker co-founded two Black medical clubs. Walkers maternal grandmother, Malvina, to whom Lyric for Strings was dedicated, grew up in slavery and escaped to freedom as a young adult during the Civil War. In his memoir, Walker tells the story of how he once asked his grandmother what it was like to be a slave, and she replied, They did everything except eat us. George Walker was a brilliant student, graduating from high school at the age of fourteen and going straight to Oberlin College where he studied piano, organ, and composition and was awarded a bachelor of music with highest honors at the age of eighteen. He continued his studies at the Curtis Institute, receiving artist diploma degrees in both piano and composition and studying with Rudolf Serkin and Rosario Scalero. Walkers career as a piano soloist had many notable successes, including a very well received solo recital at Town Hall in New York in 1945. It was the first solo recital by a Black musician in that important venue. He was a trailblazer in the field: the first Black American to graduate from Curtis, the first Black instrumentalist to perform as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, playing Rachmaninoffs Third Piano Concerto, and the first Black instrumentalist signed to a major management agency, National Concert Artists. Yet for all of these early successes, opportunities were limited for a Black American classical piano soloist in the 40s and 50s, and he watched as his peers embarked on major performing careers while he was passed over for engagements. Walker continued to perform as a pianist throughout his life, but when his career as a soloist stalled, he eventually turned to teaching for greater financial security. He earned an artist diploma and a doctor of musical arts in piano performance from the Eastman School of Music in 1957, and fulfilled his dissertation requirement by composing his Second Piano Sonata. Among the many prestigious fellowships he was awarded in his career were a Fulbright Award and the John Hay Whitney Fellowship, which supported his composition studies with Nadia Boulanger in Paris from 1957-1959. He also received two Guggenheim Fellowships, two Rockefeller Fellowships, and the Koussevitzky Award, among many more.After teaching at institutions including the New School and Smith College, Walker settled in Montclair, NJ, teaching at Rutgers University-Newark from 1969-1992, including two years as chair of the music department. He received many major commissions and performances, including from the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Baltimore Symphony, Boston princetonsymphony.org/ 12'