Biography (read more)
Florence Price was an American composer of the early-to-mid twentieth century, born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and trained at the New England Conservatory before settling in Chicago in 1927, where she remained active until her death. Her output of more than 300 works spans four symphonies, four concertos, choral and chamber music, art songs, and solo piano and organ pieces, blending late-Romantic training with African American musical idioms such as spirituals and dance rhythms. In 1933 her Symphony in E minor was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a landmark for a Black composer at the time. She died of a stroke in Chicago in 1953 at the age of 66.
Price was the first African American woman recognized as a symphonic composer and the first to have a work performed by a major American orchestra, a breakthrough achieved despite the racial and gender barriers of her era. Much of her music fell into obscurity after her death until a substantial cache of manuscripts was rediscovered in her abandoned Illinois summer home in 2009, sparking a major revival. She is now regarded as a foundational figure in American classical music and a central voice in ongoing efforts to diversify the orchestral repertoire.
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