Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker enjoys exploring the possibilities offered by different combinations of voice types and instrumental sonorities. His songs belong among the finest of any contemporary composer, Lyric for Strings is one of the most frequently performed works by an American composer, and Poem was declared a masterpiece after its première in 1987. Encouraged by Nadia Boulanger, Walker has assimilated serialism, neo-classicism and African-American music into a personal style, gaining him recognition as a true elder statesman of contemporary classical music.