Florence Price (1887-1953)

Florence Price’s mother was the first person to recognize her musical talent and provided her earliest musical training. Price went on to study composition at the New England Conservatory, supplemented with private study with George Chadwick. After graduating with an Artist’s Diploma in organ and a piano teacher certification, Price taught at a number of colleges and universities throughout the American south. In 1927, the Price family moved to Chicago to escape racial tension in Arkansas. In Chicago, she returned to school, studying composition once more at the American Conservatory and Chicago Musical College. In 1932, she won the Wanamaker competition with her Symphony in E Minor; when it was premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra the following year, Price became the first black American woman to have a work performed by a major American orchestra. She continued to write music in both popular and classical styles throughout the rest of her life, all while maintaining an active piano studio. Much of her music is rather conservative, though reflects the influence of the Harlem renaissance and her southern cultural heritage.