The Oak by Florence Beatrice Price Chamber Orchestra - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1139611

Florence Beatrice Price was born in 1887 and lived till 1953. Price composed over 300 works including 4 symphonies, 4 concertos, and numerous choral, art, and solo pieces. In 2009, a substantial collection of her works were found in her abandoned home leading to many more of her pieces becoming discovered. Florence Price is the first female, African American, composer to have her symphony performed by a major American orchestra. Her orchestral works in particular were performed by leading American orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra(1933), the Michigan W. P. A. Symphony Orchestra (1940), the Woman’s Symphony Orchestra of Chicago, and the U.S. Marine Band (40’s-50’s), to name but a few. Price also worked with esteemed vocalists such as Ellabelle David, Todd Duncan, and Blanch Theborn. The most famous may be Marian Anderson (One of her most famous songs, ‘My Soul’s Been Anchored in de Lord, was performed in one of the most important concerts ever held in America. On Easter Sunday, 1939, a concert was held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The star performer was the contralto, Marian Anderson. But because she was black she wasn’t allowed to perform in Washington D.C.’s Constitution Hall. Washington D.C. was a segregated city at the time and the rules of the hall said that only white performers could appear there. The audience in the hall would also be segregated. Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of America at the time, stepped in and the result was an outdoor concert, held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Anderson chose to close the evening with Price’s haunting song. The concert was also broadcast on the radio, meaning that Price’s music reached hundreds of thousands of people across America that evening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78I9qMb4PLg&t=2822s start at 47 minutes Contact Jdonello@oxy.edu if you wish to have the individual parts with proper page turns and etc. sent to you as well as any additional info.