Knoxville News Sentinel: Eclectic Knoxville Symphony program includes Beethoven, Florence Price works [Price work orchestrated by William Grant Still; Feb. 16 & 17, 2017]

Mei-Ann Chen

(Photo: Rosalie O'Connor/Rosalie O'Connor Photography)

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.

Knoxville News Sentinel

Special to USA Today Network - Tennessee 

Feb. 10, 2017

The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra continues its Moxley Carmichael Masterworks Series Thursday and Friday, Feb. 16 and 17, with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 1, for which the KSO will welcome guest conductor Mei-Ann Chen and pianist Lise de la Salle.

The program includes music by Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, African-American composer Florence Price, and Ludwig van Beethoven in his First Piano Concerto. The program concludes with Russian composer Igor Stravinsky's well-known ballet suite, the Firebird Suite.

The evening’s soloist, French pianist Lise de la Salle, has appeared with top orchestras and conductors in the world. She performs Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1, actually the composer's 3rd attempt in this genre. The music combines elements nodding to the old master, Mozart, with Beethoven's own harmonic characteristics.

Receiving its Knoxville premiere is Florence Price’s "Dances in the Canebrakes." Originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, Price was the first African-American woman composer whose work was performed by a major professional orchestra in the country (the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1933). Price wrote "Dances in the Canebrakes" as three dances for piano utilizing indigenous African rhythms.  Her childhood friend, William Grant Still, considered the Dean of African-American classical composers, later orchestrated theses dances.