Rae Linda Brown, Ph.D. (1953-2017)
University of Arkansas Little Rock
May 4, 2018
[This program links to a Vimeo video of the late Price scholar Rae Linda Brown, Ph.D.]
In 2009, Vicki and Darrell Gatwood of St. Anne, Illinois, made quite a
discovery. They were renovating an abandoned house that was in
desperate shape. The grass was overgrown, the floors were sunken and a
tree had fallen and torn a hole in the roof.
As they looked
around, they came across stacks of papers: musical manuscripts, letters,
photos, diary fragments and other writings. They kept seeing a name
over and over: Florence Price.
Price was born in 1887 in
Arkansas. She was the first black woman to have her music played by a
major American orchestra. She had a successful musical career, yet faded
into the background after her death.
The discovery of her
previously unknown works has now brought her music to the foreground, as
musicians across the country try to bring it to life.
***
Musicologist Rae Linda Brown was a scholar of Florence Price and a champion of Price's work. Brown died on August 17, 2017.
This
video of Brown was made by Jim Greeson, music professor and
documentarian at University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, and talks about
the rediscovery of Price's lost compositions.
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