91Èȱ¬

The 91Èȱ¬ Concert Orchestra, with conductor Jane Glover, perform live on IWD 2018.

Florence Price was an award-winning composer who is thought to have been the first woman symphonist of African-American heritage. She was certainly the first to have had her music performed by a leading orchestra. Born in Arkansas, Price had her first music published by age 11. In 1903, she was accepted to the New England Conservatoire of Music, where she achieved a Double First and a piano teaching diploma. She was denied a place on the Music Teachers’ Association, however, because of the colour of her skin.

In 1925 and 1927 Price won the Holstein prize, and her Symphony No 1 in E minor was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1932. She achieved success at a time when restrictive Jim Crow laws were in place in the South and the "Harlem Renaissance" movement was taking flight.