by Daniel Hathaway
REMEMBERING FLORENCE PRICE:
On this date in 1953, African American composer Florence Price died in Chicago at the age of 69, leaving behind a legacy of some 300 works. Dozens of her scores escaped destruction when they were discovered in 2009 in an abandoned house in St. Anne, IL.
Born in 1887, Price grew up as Florence Beatrice Smith in the integrated city of Little Rock, Arkansas, just a few houses away from William Grant Still. She attended the New England Conservatory in Boston, originally enrolling as a piano and organ major, but she later convinced conservatory director George Whitefield Chadwick to take her on as a composition student.
Returning to Little Rock, she married attorney Thomas J. Price in 1912, and after racial tensions flared up in her hometown, moved to Chicago with her husband and two daughters in 1927. There, she won the Wanamaker Competition for her first symphony, which was debuted by Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony in 1933 on a concert of music by black composers during the World’s Fair.
Price’s life and career have been captured in The Caged Bird, a 57-minute documentary produced in 2015 by the University of Arkansas. “Price’s remarkable achievements during the racist ‘Jim Crow’ era were a testament to her gifts. This is the inspiring story of one woman’s triumph over prejudice and preconceptions.” Watch a 15-minute excerpt here (a DVD is available for purchase).
Click here to listen to a 2011 performance of her Symphony No. 1 in e by the New Black Repertory Ensemble, led by Leslie B. Dummer. And here to watch a video of Price’s Symphony No, 3 in c played by the Yale Symphony Orchestra in 2016 under Toshiyuki Shimada.
Cleveland audiences recently missed the opportunity to hear Florence Price’s Fourth Symphony, which Jahja Ling was scheduled to lead in Cleveland Orchestra concerts in April.
NEWS BRIEFS AND LINKS:
- The MET Opera has now cancelled all of its scheduled productions for the fall, with the hope of resuming operations with a New Year’s gala.
- Pianist Igor Levit reflects on his marathon performance of Erik Satie’s Vexations last weekend.
- The Music Settlement announces virtual summer programs.
- Ohio Light Opera releases a summer-long schedule of performances from its archives and talks with its artists.
- BlueWater Chamber Orchestra announces a search for an orchestra manager.
- Piano Cleveland announces the jury for its Virtu(al)oso competition this summer.