Holzer says the nurturing Black community in Little Rock at the turn of the 20th century is partially to credit for Price’s inspiration. The music of her Sonata in E Minor grabbed me.”

'I came across a recording called ‘Piano Music of Florence Price.’ I was curious, and I ordered the cassette recording for myself. “As an American woman, I thought it would be interesting to focus on an American woman composer,' she says. Holzer found Price’s music while researching dissertation topics. 'Like her contemporaries William Grant Still, George Gershwin and Aaron Copland, she successfully incorporated elements of Negro folk music into Western art music.” “Price was an American nationalist,' says Linda Holzer, music professor at UA Little Rock. And though her music was heard by thousands, she never saw the status or notoriety of her white or male peers. Throughout her life, she wrote, played and promoted her music, with more than 300 pieces to her credit. Marian Anderson, the first Black person to sing with the Metropolitan Opera, closed her historic 1939 concert at the Lincoln Memorial with Price’s “My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord.” Price was also known for her spiritual music arrangements. Other pieces of hers were then featured at the Chicago World’s Fair and with the Detroit Symphony. This grabbed the attention of Frederick Stock, conductor of the Chicago Symphony, and the orchestra premiered the piece, making her the first Black female composer to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra. 1 in E Minor won first prize in the Wanamaker Music Competition. There, she attended classes to perfect her craft, played the organ for silent film screenings and wrote songs for radio ads. Racial tensions caused them to move to Chicago in 1927, and it wasn’t long before she and her husband divorced. In 1912, she returned to Little Rock to marry attorney Thomas Price and raise a family. She graduated with honors in three years with a double-major in organ performance and piano teaching.Īfter school, she came home to teach at Cotton Plant Academy and then Shorter College before moving to Atlanta to become head of the Clark College Music Department. This performance was originally scheduled for March 4–11, 2021.One of only three Black students at the conservatory, Price was counseled by her mother to list her hometown as Pueblo, Mexico, to conceal her race. Following the performance premiere, the concert will be available for ticket holders to watch on demand for one week. Please note: All Digital Stage events begin with a performance premiere, streaming in real time. This program runs approximately 1 hour and will be performed without an intermission. 4, written under the influence of Haydn and Mozart. In providing a platform for the study, performance, and discussion of a single, underrepresented composer's life and legacy, ONEcomposer promotes a more complete understanding of musical histories.Ĭann’s performance is artfully complemented by Rossini’s sparkling Overture to La scala di seta (The Silken Ladder) and Schubert’s engaging and early Symphony No. Cann's performance is supported by ONEcomposer, an initiative dedicated to musicians whose contributions have been historically erased, housed at Cornell University. This performance marks the first time the piece has been played in North America in its original orchestration since the composer’s death in 1953, and possibly since the mid-1930s.

Listen for references to spirituals, call-and-response, and the “juba”-a lively, syncopated plantation dance that predates the Civil War in this stunning Concerto. 1, Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement evokes her experiences as a Black woman raised in the post-Civil War South. Price is speaking a language she knows.” Like her celebrated Symphony No. Shortly after its premiere in 1934, a Pittsburgh Sun Telegraph reviewer wrote, “There is real American music, and Mrs. Pianist Michelle Cann makes her Philadelphia Orchestra debut with the Orchestra’s first performance of Florence Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement.

Florence price