Sheet Music review: Florence Price: Rediscovered Gems for Piano Solo

The music of the pioneering African American composer Florence Price (1887–1953) has enjoyed a surge of interest over the past decade as academics, performers, promoters and publishers belatedly bring underrepresented voices into the classical music mainstream. Price herself was the first to acknowledge that her path to acceptance would not be an easy one when she wrote to conductor Serge Koussevitsky (in 1943): ‘I have two handicaps – those of sex and race. I am a woman; and I have Negro blood in my veins.’

That Price triumphed despite these barriers is testament to her talent and dedication to music. Nor were they the only major challenges she faced. Married twice, Price divorced her first husband after he repeatedly abused her, then separated from her second husband to raise two young daughters alone, supporting them by playing the organ for silent films and composing radio songs. She also ended up estranged from her mother, who chose to identify as White and cut all family ties after her own remarriage – a personal tragedy recorded in Price's poignant song ‘Brown Arms (To Mother)’.