Halifax.WickedLocal.com: Plymouth [MA] Philharmonic is launching its 101st season at 8 p.m. Oct. 1 with a program featuring Florence Price's Symphony No. 3

Florence Beatrice Smith Price (1887-1953) is profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a comprehensive Works Lists by Dr. Dominique-René de Lerma, http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com.

Wicked Local Halifax

Monday, September 26, 2016

By Emily Clark

PLYMOUTH – Think of a tour of the south through the 1890s into the 1930s, and then rocketing off for a visit to seven planets.

The Plymouth Philharmonic, affectionately known as “The Phil,” is launching its 101st season at 8 p.m. Oct. 1 with a program featuring Florence Price’s “Symphony No. 3” and crowned by the universe with Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.”

Directed by Lisa Graham, the Wellesley College Chorus will help deliver the cosmic crescendo.

Commissioned by the Works Progress Administration's Federal Music Project during the height of the Great Depression, “Symphony No. 3” seems like a tribute to Americana and a history of a nation at once torn and united behind ideals of freedom. It is the first symphony written by an African-American woman to be performed by a major symphony. Price was also the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer. The music conjures images of the south, the heart-wrenching clashes, triumphs and joys of America from the roaring 90s to the economic collapse of the 1930s.

From Price, the orchestra will rocket into the mysterious, mythic and other-worldly melodies and rhythms of Holst’s “The Planets.”

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