Florence Beatrice Price became an award-winning pianist and composer who was the first African-American woman to have her work performed by a major symphony. Now you may ask, how did this amazing woman come to be?
Well, Price grew up in a mixed family with a father who was a dentist and a mom who was a music teacher. She had her first piano performance at the age of four and then first published composition when she was eleven. She was a remarkable, talented pianist and composer, so she dreamed of taking her studies further with post secondary education.
Price began her studies at the New England Conservatory of Music. During this time in the 19th century, when serious racial issues were prevalent, she pretended to be Mexican to avoid the prejudice of African Americans at the time. Despite these racial issues, she continued to pursue her dream no matter what the cost.
Later, she found her husband Thomas J. Price and moved the Little Rock Arkansas with him, but they quickly moved to Chicago after a series of lynching incidents. While in Chicago, she studied primarily orchestration and composition, and as soon as her career was taking off, she had issues with her finances, which ended in divorce. As her husband was the main “breadwinner” in her family, she had to then provide for her two children on her own.
As a single mother with children, she earned money as an organist for silent films while she stayed with her friends, family, and other compositional friends such as Margret Bonds. Bonds introduced Price to major composers in the industry, and eventually, her pieces began to win prize after prize. Price was first place in the song category and had a performance by the prolific Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
Price died of a stroke in 1953, however, other African American and black woman continue to look up to her as their inspiration to over come prejudice within the artistic field of music. Despite the tragedy of this outstanding woman, she left a mark on the world and symbolized a new beginning where the color of your skin does not determine what you can or cannot achieve. Despite all these multi-dimensional factors of being both a woman, and of color, Price demonstrated that these factors should not be viewed as a limitation but rather as a light that serves to break through the darkness to fully illuminate all that can be changed in the world.
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