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Philly Orchestra Releases Music of Historic Black Composer Florence Price

Michelle Cann, a concert pianist and faculty members of the Curtis Institute of Music, has been a champion of composer Florence Price since she discovered her music five years ago. Two of Price’s symphonies have just been recorded and released by the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Emma Lee
/
WHYY
Michelle Cann, a concert pianist and faculty members of the Curtis Institute of Music, has been a champion of composer Florence Price since she discovered her music five years ago. Two of Price’s symphonies have just been recorded and released by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

The Philadelphia Orchestra recently released their recordings of music composed by Florence Price, the first Black composer to have her work played by a major American orchestra in the 1930s, but then became nearly forgotten since she died in the 1950s. WHYY’s Peter Crimmins reports on the orchestra’s plans to make her music widely available.

(Original air-date: 10/20/21)

WHYY’s arts and culture reporter Peter Crimmins first became interested in radio in the fourth grade, when he smuggled a contraband crystal-diode radio into the Boy Scout summer camp. Subsequent radio projects were more successful.