DISCOVERING GEORGE WALKER

“Discovering George Walker” is a personal documentation of one of America’s greatest composers. I had the great honor and unexpected privilege to document his life for over 14 years. I met George after hearing one of his works on the radio back in 2004 and reached out to him the same evening to see if I could get a copy of his Sinfonia No. 3 for Orchestra which was performed by the Detroit Symphony. I did not realize that he in fact lived in the same town as I–in Montclair, New Jersey–until he personally hand-delivered the cassette and dropped it through my front door mail slot. George and I became very close friends, and I assisted him in many of his projects. Even though he won the Pulitzer Prize, and was the first African American to do so, for his work “Lilacs for Soprano and Orchestra” in 1996, it was a continual uphill effort to make contact with orchestras and have them perform his over 90 plus works. This despite the fact that George had many “Firsts”–he was the first Black student to graduate from The Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia as a pianist, and he was only 14 years old when he studied at Oberlin Conservatory. George shared with me many times his running into “Dead ends!” of trying to be recognized as a classical composer. When he did make contact in the 50’s and 60’s, he was frequently confronted with the stereotypical question “Are you a jazz pianist?”, is your music “Jazz oriented?” For the 14 years of documenting George Walker, I felt that God had placed me in this serendipitous presence of a great genius. One who became a very close friend and person who I collaborated with in “Getting his music–Out there, to be heard!” In 2017, I made a short film,“ Discovering George Walker” which had its world premiere at the Musée de l’Elysée in Lausanne, Switzerland presented at the festival Les Nuits des Images.

Frank Schramm

PHOTOGRAPHY