Florence Beatrice Price was the first African-American to have music presented by a major orchestra. Florence Price was born Florence B. Smith April 9, 1887 in Little Rock, Arkansas to music teacher Florence Gulliver and James Smith. Taught by her mother, Florence learned to play the piano and performed her first recital at age four. She attended elementary school with William Grant Still, published her first composition at age eleven, and proceeded to graduate Capitol High School with the title valedictorian at age fourteen. Florence then attended the New England Conservatory of Music and majored in organ and piano while posing as Mexican. After graduating in 1906 she then worked as a college professor, a church organist, and a theatre accompanist. She moved to Atlanta, Georgia and became Chair of the Music Department for Clark University in 1910. After returning to Arkansas, Florence married lawyer Thomas J. Price in 1912 and moved back to Little Rock, where they had a stillborn son and two daughters. The child would later have the piece To My Little Son dedicated to him. …show more content…
This experience led to them settling in Chicago, Illinois where Florence went to work studying at various music institutions. Facing financial difficulties and the end of her marriage, Florence worked as a composer for radio advertisements. By the end of the 1920s, she finally made some headway, as her pieces for piano were being published. The pinnacle of her work was in 1933 when the world famous Chicago Symphony,composed entirely of white men, premiered Florence’s Symphony in E Minor. The life of this ambitious and determined composer came to an end when she died of a stroke June