The Woman's Symphony Orchestra of Chicago and Florence B. Price's Piano Concerto in One Movement

Abstract

Florence B. Price (1887-1953) first gained recognition as a serious composer in 1932 when she won first prize for her Symphony in E Minor in the Wanamaker Music Composition Contest.' This contest brought her music to the attention of Frederick Stock, who conducted the Chicago Symphony in a performance of the work at the Auditorium Theatre in 1933. Stock conducted Price's symphony again that summer at the World's Fair Century of Progress Exhibition, when it was also broadcast over radio. Price's symphony won critical acclaim and was the first symphony by an African-American woman composer to be played by a major American orchestra. Only one year elapsed between the successful performance of Price's award-winning symphony and the completion of her next major orchestral work, the Piano Concerto in One Movement. The earliest references to the piano concerto are from October 1933, when Price's friend and patron Helen Armstrong Andrews, who would be the dedicatee of the concerto, wrote to the composer about the work.2 A December 5, 1933, entry in Price's diary informs us that efforts continued on the concerto through 1933:3