Florence Beatrice Price was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, to a mixed-race family. Her mother, who was a music teacher, gave her musical training from an early age. By the age of 4, she had her first piano performance, and at 11, she published her first composition.
She attended Capitol Hill School in Little Rock, graduating as valedictorian at 14. Afterward, she studied composition and counterpoint at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where she wrote her first string trio and her first symphony. At 19, Price received an artist diploma in organ and a teaching certificate. She began teaching music, first at Shorter College in North Little Rock, Arkansas, and then at Clark University in Atlanta, Georgia, where she was appointed head of the music department.
In 1912, at the age of 25, she married Thomas J. Price and returned to Little Rock. There, she opened a music studio and wrote pieces for the piano. She tried to become a member of the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association but got denied due to her race. In 1927, after a series of racial incidents in Little Rock, supported by Jim Crow Laws, Price and her family moved to Chicago, where she continued teaching music. She further her musical education, studying organ, composition, orchestration, languages, and liberal arts. In 1928, at the age of 40, Price published four pieces for piano.
Three years later, she got divorced. As a single mother of two, she moved in with her friend, the pianist, and composer Margaret Bonds, working as a radio ads composer and an organist for silent film screenings. In 1932, Price submitted some of her compositions to the Wanamaker Foundation Awards, winning first place for her Symphony in E minor and third for her Piano Sonata. In the following year, Price’s symphony was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, making her the first African-American woman composer to have a composition played by a major orchestra. She gained international fame, and her pieces were performed by orchestras all around the world.
During the 1940s and the 1950s, Price composed pieces for a wide range of vocals and instruments, and her music was performed regularly by her friend Marian Anderson. She was an active member of the local chapters of the National Federation of Music Clubs and the National Association for Negro Musicians (NANM).
Price’s music style was a combination of classical music with African-American rhythms and melodies. She was inspired by juba dance, blues, and church music. This mixture of tradition and modernism, classic training, and African-American heritage reflected the contemporary culture of African-Americans in the large cities.
Throughout her career, Price composed more than 300 pieces, including four symphonies, four concertos, dozens of Choral, solo vocals, Instrumental Chamber Music, works of piano and organ, works for violin, as well as music for the radio.
She died from a stroke at age 66. Following her death, many of her pieces were forgotten, and much of them got lost. However, in 2009, a collection of her work was found in an abandoned house in Illinois. Since then, her music had revived and received the recognition it deserves, performed by various artists and orchestras.
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