Florence Price was widely performed during the 1030s, but by the fifties her work had dropped from view. Since the rediscovery of the full score for her Piano Concerto in One Movement, Michelle Cann’s ‘exquisite, authoritative’ performances have reintroduced Price to audiences and critics alike. Passionate, part Romantic, part bluesy, the Concerto is a small sample of Price’s repertory.
Conductor Tito Muños will open the final program of the season with works by Buxtehude and Quinn Mason and close with Beethoven’s joyous Symphony No. 7. Beethoven called this work “one of the happiest products of my poor talents”—the perfect choice to conclude Symphony Silicon Valley’s 20th anniversary season.
Florence Beatrice Price (1887 – 1953) was an American Classical Composer, noted as the first African-American Woman to be recognized as a symphonic composer, and to have a composition played by a major orchestra. Rice composed many works: symphonies, concertos, choral works, art songs, and music for chamber and solo instruments. Lost and largely forgotten after her death, a trove of her scores was unearthed in 2009; and in 2018, the catalog of her music acquired a publisher.