Helen Walker-Hill

Helen Walker-Hill (née Siemens; May 26, 1936 – August 8, 2013) was a Canadian pianist and musicologist who specialised in the music of black women composers.

Helen Walker-Hill
Birth nameHelen Siemens
Born(1936-05-26)May 26, 1936
Winnipeg, Canada
DiedAugust 8, 2013(2013-08-08) (aged 77)
Boulder, Colorado, U.S.
Occupation(s)Pianist, musicologist

Walker-Hill was married to the composer George Walker from 1960 to 1975, with the marriage producing two sons, the violinist and composer Gregory T.S. Walker and the playwright Ian Walker.[1][2][3]

Biography

Helen Walker-Hill was born on May 26, 1936, in Winnipeg, Canada. She held a BA from the University of Toledo (1957), was a Fulbright fellow at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris in France where she studied with Nadia Boulanger (1958), an MA in musicology from Smith College (1965) and a DMA in piano performance from the University of Colorado in Boulder (1981). From 1983 to 1990 she was assistant professor adjunct at the piano faculty, University of Colorado in Boulder.[4] From 1993 to 1998 she was visiting assistant professor at the University of Wyoming. She also taught at Muhlenberg College.[5]

From 1987 onwards, proceeding from a desire to use music of black women composers in her piano performance and teachings, Walker-Hill dedicated herself to uncovering the material, utilising secondary sources and numerous archives, conducting interviews with composers, and engaging in voluminous correspondence with individuals and institutions. Her resulting lecture, "Rediscovering Heritage: The Music of Black Women Composers" was widely published and featured on National Public Radio.

Between 1996 and 1997 Walker-Hill was a Rockefeller resident fellow in the humanities at the Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College. In the years following she donated the bulk of her collection of research materials and scores to the CBMR Library and Archives as the Helen Walker-Hill Collection.[6] In 2005 the CBMR received a $94,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to compile a detailed finding aid to her collection as part of a project to inventory the papers of three major women scholars: Eileen Southern, Dena J. Epstein, and Helen Walker-Hill.

In 2006 Walker-Hill consulted with the CBMR on the production of a concert of piano, vocal, and chamber works from her collection.

Works

Books
  • Piano Music by Black Women Composers: A Catalog of Solo and Ensemble Works: Greenwood Press, 1992 (ISBN 9780313064722)
  • Black Women Composers: A Century of Piano Music 1983-1990, with Montague Ring: Hildegard Publishing Co., 1992
  • Music by Black Women Composers: A Biography of Available Scores; CBMR Monographs, 1995 (ISBN 9780929911045)
  • From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music: Greenwood Press, 2002 (ISBN 9780313281419)[5][7]

Recordings
  • Kaleidoscope: Music by African-American Women with Gregory Walker (Leonarda LE 339, 1995)

References
  1. "CBMR Digest: Helen Walker-Hill 'was respected and loved by a wide circle of students, scholars, composers, and performers as well as by the CBMR staff.'". AfriClassical. August 22, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  2. Walker, George, 1922-2018. (2009). Reminiscences of an American composer and pianist. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-6940-0. OCLC 311310312.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  3. "Composer George Walker's son is ready to shine with "Violin Concertos"". The Denver Post. December 7, 2009. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  4. "Collection: Helen Walker-Hill collection | Special Collections & Archives". archives.colorado.edu. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  5. Walker-Hill, Helen. "UI Press | Helen Walker-Hill | From Spirituals to Symphonies: African-American Women Composers and Their Music". University of Illinois Press. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  6. "Helen Walker-Hill papers". The University of Chicago Library. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
  7. Overby, Jonathan (July 9, 2020). "African American Women Composers and Their Music". Wisconsin Public Radio. Retrieved November 22, 2020.
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