George Walker

Furniture is pleasing to the eye when various elements work together to create a harmonious whole. 18th Century furniture design, like architecture, relied heavily on proportional schemes derived from classical architectural orders. Today's furniture makers can use these design principles to create contemporary or period furniture. George Walker demonstrates how to use this approach to create visual harmony.

The National Symphony Orchestra (NSO) will release an album of George Walker’s five sinfonias, conducted by Music Director Gianandrea Noseda, on September 8, 2023. The recording project celebrates NSO’s connection to Walker—the first African American composer to receive a Pulitzer Prize and a D.C. native—and honors his centennial, which was in 2022.

Catalyst Quartet continues their highly regarded series of music by Black composers. Uncovered, Volume 3 includes quartets written by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, William Grant Still, and George Walker.

A sequence of piano sonatas offers one of the most direct looks into a composer’s most private and most practical obsessions, not to mention one easy way to measure the evolution (or lack of evolution) of their compositional techniques. Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and Schubert turned them out by the dozen. The romantics were much more cautious, with Chopin, Brahms, Schumann writing only three apiece. In the 20th century, certain Russians regained ground in terms of sheer numbers, such as Mednter (14), Scriabin (10), Prokofiev (9) and Ustvolskaya (6). As for some prominent Americans, Copland, Carter and Barber wrote one, Ives wrote two, Sessions three and Wuorinen four. George Walker is one of the few leading American composers of the 20th century to produce as many as five piano sonatas. Taken together, they securely chart a lifetime of stylistic change. Walker managed many other feats, a number of them connected to being the first black person to break through various glass ceilings: the first to be accepted at the Curtis Institute of Music, first to study with Nadia Boulanger and the first to win the Pulitzer Prize in Music. Walker is also one of the only major composer-pianists to have recorded worthy performances of virtuoso standard repertoire including Beethoven’s “Emperor Concerto” and the Brahms second piano concerto.

Just barely 20 at the time, pianist George Duke made his recording debut with a straight-ahead quartet also including the obscure bass trumpeter David Simmons, bassist John Heard and drummer George Walker. This was one of Duke's very few all-standards sets, and he proved to be a fine hard bop/soul-jazz pianist; unfortunately, that phase would not last long. Highlights include "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes", "Jeannine" and "Secret Love." But by the time the pianist recorded his second date as a leader three years later, this particular George Duke would be history.

The fifth audio release on The Cleveland Orchestra’s own label once again showcases the ensemble’s unparalleled artistry and polished music-making, alongside as its longstanding commitment to perform and present new repertory under the direction of Music Director Franz Welser-Möst. This album features four works spanning half a century by pioneering American composer George Walker (1922-2018). Together, they demonstrate his wide-ranging musical vision and meticulously-crafted sound-worlds.