Boston Globe: Rediscovering the art of a pioneering black woman composer [Free Feb. 10 & 12 performances of String Quartet of Florence B. Price (1887-1953)]

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.

The DVD (56:38) can be purchased from the University of Arkansas for $19.95 at this URL:  http://www.uapress.com/dd-product/the-caged-bird/

The Boston Globe

Matthew Guerrieri

February 03, 2017

On Feb. 10 and 12, members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra will perform free community concerts, and on the program is Florence Price’s 1929 String Quartet.

Price was born in 1887 in Arkansas; her father, James Smith, was a successful dentist and one of Little Rock’s most prominent African-American citizens. At the age of 14, Price came to Boston to study at the New England Conservatory. (The family was proud but realistic: Price’s mother, wary of racism, told NEC her daughter was Mexican.) After graduation, she returned south, marrying attorney Thomas Price and teaching at Atlanta’s Clark University. But after a lynching in the Prices’ neighborhood, the family joined the Great Migration, moving to Chicago in 1927.

The transition was rocky. Florence furthered her studies at Chicago colleges, but both Prices struggled to find work; by 1931, they had divorced. Price finally broke through thanks to a confluence of industry and injury. Her Symphony No. 1 — much of it written while convalescing from a broken foot — won the 1932 Wanamaker Prize, a national competition for African-American composers, named for department store magnate Rodman Wanamaker. (Price’s Piano Sonata took third prize in the same competition.) As part of the prize, Price’s Symphony was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, to rave reviews.

Price’s career was also buoyed by government support, in the form of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration. WPA-supported orchestras, especially the accomplished and unusually vital Chicago Women’s Symphony, premiered and performed her music.

Comment by email:
Dear William; Thanks for sharing this with me.  A number of months ago the librarian of the BSO got in touch with me to get the score and parts for this recently discovered string quartet.  He assured me they would be performing it eventually, but I hadn't heard more until your email. - Jim Greeson