Florence B. Price (1887-1953)
Dale, Virginia
October 10, 2019
The Manassas
Symphony Orchestra (MSO) will open its 2019-2020 season on Oct. 26, at
7:30 p.m. at the Hylton Performing Arts Center. Under the baton of Music
Director James Villani, the concert will feature a performance of the
marvelous Symphony No. 1 in E minor by American composer Florence Price.
Price
is noted as the first African-American woman to be recognized as a
symphonic composer, and the first to have a composition played by a
major orchestra. Born in Arkansas and educated at the New England
Conservatory of Music, she composed this symphony, her first of four, in
1931-32. It won the top prize in a competition for African American
composers and premiered with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933. She
wrote numerous other pieces, including choral works, chamber music,
arrangements of spirituals, and piano concerti. Her orchestral music,
however, remained unpublished and rarely performed until recently.
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