Acknowledgement for Florence Price

Infectious mix

Florence Price was, during her lifetime, the first African-American woman to be considered a great symphonist and to have her work performed by the major American orchestras. After her death in 1953, this changed rapidly and her work faded into the background. Her infectious mix of classical influences interspersed with African-American folk music is now once again in the spotlight.

Spirituals

Price had a solid education and knew her classics. For example, thanks in part to the work of Mozart and Beethoven, she learned to build a symphonic structure. However, she learned most from Antonin Dvořák, who encouraged American composers to use not only the European tradition, but also their own folk music such as spirituals as a source of inspiration. In this way, her work not only holds its own among the symphonies of Mozart and Beethoven, but she now also gives a convincing voice to composers and musicians of color, together with violinist Randall Goosby.