Florence Price’s life is usually summed up by a single accomplishment—as the first African American female composer to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra in the United States. In fact, she composed over three hundred compositions, including four symphonies, two violin concertos, a piano concerto, piano and organ solos, string quartets, choral works, and numerous art songs made famous by contralto Marian Anderson.
Florence Price, born in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1887, began her studies under her music teacher mother. By age eighteen, she had earned two degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music. After a stint as the head of the music department at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, she settled in Chicago where her career as a composer took off when she won first prize in the Wanamaker Competition for her Symphony No. 1 in E Minor.
To pursue her career as a composer, Florence Price faced a daunting battle on three fronts. She was a woman in what was considered a man’s profession. She was an American when Europeans were considered to be superior composers. The toughest battle was her race, during a time when racial discrimination was endemic. By combining traditional elements with African American folk songs, dance rhythms, spirituals, and jazz, Florence Price’s music bursts onto the concert stage as truly American and uniquely her own.
Dragonfeather Books
90 pp. ● 6×9
$11.95 (pb) $2.99 (eb)
ISBN 978-1-949290-79-0 (pb)
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Biography & Autobiography / Music
JUVENILE NONFICTION / Biography & Autobiography / WomenMUSIC / Individual Composer & Musician
For ages 9-12
Publication date: February 1, 2022
Janet Nichols Lynch is the author of thirteen books including American Music Makers: An Introduction to American Composers, Women Music Makers: An Introduction to Women Composers, Racing California, a Society of School Librarians International Honor Book, and Messed Up, an ALA Quick-Pick for Reluctant Readers and a VOYA (Voices of Youth Advocates) Top of the Top Shelf Fiction for Middle School Readers. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Seventeen, and Highlights for Children.
Janet was born and raised in Sacramento. She graduated with a BA in Music from California State University, Sacramento; an MM in Piano from Arizona State; and an MFA in Creative Writing from California State University, Fresno. She has taught music, English, and history at the middle school, high school, and college levels. She lives with her husband in Visalia, California, and they have two grown children. She enjoys competing in runs and triathlons, and has the goal of cycling in every state.