About George Walker

George Theophilus Walker (born June 27, 1922) is an African-American composer, the first to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He received the Pulitzer for his work Lilacs in 1996. Walker was first exposed to music at the age of five when he began to play the piano. He was admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory at 14 and received his doctorate from the Eastman School of Music. Walker studied composition with Rosario Scalero who also taught Samuel Barber and Gian-Carlo Menotti.