1936 - 2013
Helen Walker-Hill, pianist, received her early musical training from her mother, Margaret Siemens, and continued piano studies with Emma Endres Kountz in Toledo, Ohio. She holds degrees from the University of Colorado, Smith College, and the Šcole Normale de Musique in Paris, where she studied as a Fulbright scholar with Nadia Boulanger. Formerly on the piano faculty of the University of Colorado at Boulder, Dr. Walker-Hill has also served as a visiting faculty member at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania and at the University of Wyoming. She has been a member of the Walker Duo with her son, Gregory Walker, since 1983.
Walker-Hill has been engaged in research and performance of music by black women since 1987, and her work has been featured on National Public Radios "Morning Edition" and "Horizons" programs. She is the author of a book, Piano Music by Black Women Composers: A Catalog of Solo and Ensemble Works, the editor of an anthology, Black Women Composers: A Century of Piano Music 1893-1990, and editor of the Vivace Press series, Music by African American-Women. Her monograph, Music by Black Women Composers: A Bibliography of Available Scores, is published by the Center for Black Music Research in Chicago. Walker-Hill was awarded a 1995-96 Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City.
From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music (Hardcover) by Helen Walker-Hill
