''Lilacs for voice and orchestra'' (or ''Lilacs'') is a musical composition by George T. Walker Jr. (1922–2018) that was awarded the 1996

Pulitzer Prize for Music The Pulitzer Prize for Music is one of seven Pulitzer Prizes awarded annually in Letters, Drama, and Music. It was first given in 1943. Joseph Pulitzer arranged for a music scholarship to be awarded each year, and this was eventually converted ...

. The work, scored for soprano soloist and orchestra, was the unanimous choice of the Pulitzer prize jury.Fischer, Heinz Dietrich and Fischer, Erika J. (2001). ''Musical Composition Awards 1943-1999'', p.xlvi. .Fischer, Heinz-Dietrich (1988). ''The Pulitzer Prize archive'', p.278. . Walker was the first African-American composer to be awarded the prize. Walker set the 1865 poem, "

When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" is a long poem written by American poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) as an elegy to President Abraham Lincoln. It was written in the summer of 1865 during a period of profound national mourning in the af ...

", by poet

Walt Whitman Walter Whitman (; May 31, 1819 – March 26, 1892) was an American poet, essayist and journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism and realism, incorporating both views in his works. Whitman is among ...

. Whitman wrote the poem as an elegy to President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

after his death on 15 April 1865. The composition was premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Faye Robinson on February 1, 1996.Brennan, Elizabeth A. and Clarage, Elizabeth C. (1999). ''Who's Who of Pulitzer Prize Winners'', p.451. . "The unanimous choice of the Music Jury, this passionate, and very American, musical composition...has a beautiful and evocative lyrical quality using words of Walt Whitman."

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