Meet the Composer: Florence Price

The classical music canon is rooted in "conscious selection performed by individuals in positions of power."

Musicologist Douglas Shadle

Florence Price was the first Black woman to have a symphonic work performed by a major American orchestra, when the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed her Symphony No. 1 in E minor in 1933.

Despite this historic achievement, music publishers would not publish the work until 2008.

This is merely one example of the ways in which ignorance and prejudice have robbed Price and the world of the legacy that she deserves. Our Voices of the African Diaspora concert is an effort to bring historically excluded voices to the forefront of our musical dialogue, and to begin to redress inequities like this one.

A Biography in Brief

  • Florence Price was born in 1887 in Little Rock, AK, to a middle-class family - her father was a dentist.

    There were no libraries for Black people in Little Rock in 1887 - so Price’s father had a formal library with medical books and journals, which Price enjoyed reading.

  • She attended the New England Conservatory from 1903-1906.

    Price graduated from high school at the age of 14, and she received both a Teachers Diploma in Piano and a Soloists Diploma in Organ within just three years at NEC.

  • Price returned to Little Rock in 1912 with her husband - where they had two daughters.

    One of Price’s daughters - Florence Price Robinson - advocated for her mother’s career throughout the 1940s. Without that advocacy, much of the already scant knowledge about Price would likely be lost.

  • Despite her talents, Price was denied membership to the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association.

    In response, Price founded the Little Rock Club of Musicians.

  • Price fled Little Rock in 1927 as part of the Great Migration.

    Racial violence, including a lynching, prompted Price to fear for her family’s safety. She would die in Chicago on June 3, 1953, due to a stroke.

Price’s works, recovered:

In 2009, large collection of Price’s music was found in an abandoned house in St. Anne, Illinois. The music included monumental works, including her Fourth Symphony and her two violin concerti, as well as many of her writings and papers.

Since that time, the popularity of Price’s music has exploded, as orchestras around the world finally turn their attention to this rich legacy of music that had, previously, been ignored.

Additional Reading: