In 2009 a family began renovating an abandoned house in St. Anne, Illinois, and were astonished to discover piles of paper throughout the home… music manuscripts.
The papers, and the house, had once belonged to composer Florence Beatrice Price, the first African-American woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra.
Florence was born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1887 and studied at the prestigious New England Conservatory, where she earned degrees in organ performance and piano pedagogy. Trained in a late Romantic style, Price merged European influences with elements of her African American heritage… including spirituals, call-and-response, and dance rhythms. She taught at several southern colleges, married, and moved to Chicago, where she resumed composition studies and built connections with other Black artists and intellectuals.
Perhaps the most important connection was with Margaret Bonds, also a pianist and composer, and Price’s student. Bonds premiered Florence’s Fantaisie nègre in 1929 to acclaim, and both entered works in the 1932 Wannamaker Foundation competition. Both won first prize… Bonds for song, and Price’s Symphony in E minor for orchestral composition. The symphony was then performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at the 1933 World’s Fair.
Price continued to write: 4 symphonies, 3 concertos, suites, overtures, songs; but many of those remained unpublished at the time of her fatal 1953 heart attack in Chicago… that is, until their rediscovery in that abandoned downstate Illinois summer house 56 years later.
Florence Beatrice Price… a Composing Woman.
Repertoire
Symphony #1 in e minor
Violin Concerto #2
Fantaisie nègre no. 1
String Quartet #2 in a minor
Resignation, for choir (text also by FBP)
Ethiopia’s shadow in America
Supporting Materials
Images
Image of Florence Price, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Price
Image of Florence Price with Sixteen Other People at 1934 Party in Honor of Maude R. George taken by Worthington Studios. From https://www.aspenmusicfestival.com/about/festival-publications/music-blog/florence-b-price-a-biographical-vignette/
Image of Florence Price seated in front of a piano. From https://www.cedillerecords.org/artists/florence-price/
Accessible websites relevant to the composer
https://florenceprice.com/
This website invites performers and scholars of Florence Beatrice Price to share their contributions with the public. It contains biographical information as well as ongoing scholarly research.
https://www.pricefest.org/florence-price
This is the website for the international Florence Price festival. It contains biographical information as well as information about events and concerts featuring Price’s music.
