Name: Discovering Florence Price
Start: 2023-05-24T19:30:00
Location: Theatre Royal & Royal Concert Hall

Joshua Weilerstein

Jeneba Kanneh-Mason

BBC Philharmonic

A true musical pioneer, Arkansas-born Florence Price encountered numerous challenges throughout her career, including segregation and the threat of racial violence. She displayed extraordinary determination in getting her work published and performed, aided by just a handful of supporters and sympathetic American conductors, but her work fell into obscurity following her death in 1953. It’s only relatively recently been rediscovered and its importance acknowledged. This concert offers a timely opportunity to experience two of Price’s vibrant and imaginative works: her Piano Concerto in One Movement, premiered in Chicago in 1934, and her First Symphony*, first performed in 1933. Both display the melodic strength of Price’s best work, with the symphony characterised by colourful orchestration, with hints of fiddles and banjos adding some distinctive textures.