Florence Price’s Chicago and the Black Female Fellowship

Available for over a year

Samantha Ege unravels a tale of music, kinship and community in 1920s Chicago: the remarkable female musicians and activists who helped Florence Price's music to thrive. The last few years have seen the life and work of Florence Price (1887-1953) come fascinatingly - and belatedly - into the spotlight. Born in segregation-era Little Rock Arkansas, Price is now considered amongst the most important American musicians of the 20th century: a pioneering and gifted African-American composer whose life and music challenged - and broke through - barriers of race and gender to claim a place in music history. In 1933, Florence Price was the first black woman to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra, the Chicago Symphony. Her works for piano - including her rhapsodic and intoxicating Fantasies Negres - are full of the influence of not just spirituals and folk music, but Stravinsky, Berg and the lush textures and melodies of early 20th century Romanticism. Now, in the 21st century, Florence Price's music is finally finding its rightful place in our concert halls and history books. Yet underpinning Price's story is a remarkable parallel story - one that's still virtually unknown. Because Florence Price was not an anomaly. Hers is just one part of a remarkable narrative in 20th-century American music: a thriving community of black female musicians in early 20th-century Chicago, whose collective agency, advocacy, support and activism helped one another - and Price especially - to truly thrive. For the first time, Oxford University Research Fellow Dr Samantha Ege tells their story - (re-)framing Price as part of a vivid group portrait in the nexus of Chicago South Side's cultural community: the district of Bronzeville. As we traverse the key locations and the cultural geography of this remarkable district, Samantha unravels the story of a unique "Chicago Renaissance", exploring the interlinked stories of four pivotal musical figures: Nora Douglas Holt (1885-1974), Estella Conway Bonds (1882-1957) and her daughter Margaret Bonds (1913-1972) and Maude Roberts George (1892-1943). With contributions from historians Tammy Kernodle, Liesl Olson and Alisha Jones; composer Regina Harris Baiocchi; photographer and author Lee Bey; and vocalists Robert Sims and Paul-Martin Bender. Producer: Steven Rajam An Overcoat Media production