A Musical Portrait: Price and Bonds: Rock My Soul Festival

As two Black women composers working in the 1930s, unrecognized and unsupported by their field and the country in which they lived, Florence Price and Margaret Bonds forged a lasting relationship as mentor and student, as musical collaborators, as champions of one another’s art, and as friends. Both Bonds and Price would set numerous “firsts” as milestones in their careers, writing with distinct musical vocabularies that blended their Western classical training with African American styles and forms, and championing messages of Black acceptance and pride in the United States. From art songs to solo showpieces and symphonic excerpts, Julia Bullock curates an evening showcasing the enduring musical voices of Price and Bonds.