Decolonize Black History Month

Day 18: Florence Price

Florence Beatrice Smith Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas on April 9, 1887. Her mother was pianist and taught Price how to play. At age 14 she enrolled in the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. After graduating in 1907, Price worked as a teacher and eventually chair of the music department at Clark University in Atlanta, Georgia. Price returned to Arkansas in 1912 and opened a music school. However it was not until moving to Chicago, Illinois in 1927 that her career as a composer took off. Price studied music, languages, and liberal arts at the American Conservatory of Music, the Chicago Musical College, Chicago Teacher’s College and Chicago University. Price also played organ for silent film screenings and continued her work as a teacher. One of her pupils was the famed composer Margaret Bonds.

In 1932 G. Schirmer published Price’s work At the Cotton Gin. In 1932 she won Wanamaker Foundation Awards for “Symphony in E minor” and for “Piano Sonata.” “Symophony in E minor” was performed at the 1933 World’s Fair by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She wrote hundreds of pieces including works for piano and organ, spiritual arrangements, chamber music, and symphonies. Price also wrote music for her friend Marian Anderson. In 1940 Price was inducted into the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. Her work, a combination of the sounds of European romanticism and Black American music, fell out of popularity after her death. However, it has gained resurgence in recent years. Some of her pieces, long considered lost, were re-discovered and released in the 1990s. The Women’s Philharmonic created an album with Price’s compositions in 2001. In 2014 renowned pianist Karen Walwyn and the New Black Repertory Ensemble performed several of Price’s pieces.

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