Florence Price: A Celebration, a multi-event music festival, will pay tribute to the life, music, and enduring legacy of a woman who broke barriers of race and gender in classical music. Taking place at venues across Nashville October 3 through November 14, the series is produced by Douglas Shadle, associate professor of musicology at Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, and funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Celebration will include performances at the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Blair School of Music, and Tennessee State University.
Florence Price (1888-1953) was a gifted performer, composer, and educator. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, she went on to study at the New England Conservatory of Music and is recognized as the first African American woman to have a composition played by a major orchestra. Her body of work includes more than 300 compositions, many of which have now been performed by major ensembles around the world.
The Nashville Celebration events are an outgrowth of Shadle’s extensive research and writing on Price’s career, which has helped fuel renewed national interest in her music. “We really want to take the Florence Price revival to the next level,” said Shadle, “bringing communities from all over our city together in a multi-generational series of concerts. We will be featuring musicians from Nashville, across the country, and around the world as we celebrate the full array of Price’s musical talents.”
Special guest performers will include acclaimed British scholar, pianist, and educator, Samantha Ege; Cuban-born musician and musicologist Camila Cortina Bello; standout opera performer and lecturer Patrick Dailey; and award-winning poet and educator, Michelle J. Pinkard. The faculty of the Blair School of Music will also be featured throughout the concert series, with 20 faculty members scheduled to perform.
An award-winning historian of American orchestras and orchestral music, Douglas Shadle is a leading expert on fellow Little Rock native Florence Price. He is currently co-authoring, with Samantha Ege, a biography of Price for the Oxford University Press Master Musicians Series. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in musicology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a B.M. in viola performance, summa cum laude, from the University of Houston. Shadle joined the Blair School musicology faculty in 2014.
Assistant Professor of Musicology
Blair School of Music
Vanderbilt University
Photo: Anne Rayner; VU
FLORENCE PRICE: A CELEBRATION
Event 1: “Celebrating Black Music” in collaboration with the Nashville Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music Series
- Tuesday, October 3, 2023
- 7:30 PM, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Laura Turner Concert Hall
- Featuring Dr. Samantha Ege, piano soloist; Titus Underwood, oboe; Julia Harguindey, bassoon; and Megan Gale*, piano.
Event 2: “Florence Price at the Piano” – A Conversation-Recital with Dr. Samantha Ege
- Friday, October 6, 2023
- 8:00 PM, Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall
- Featuring Dr. Samantha Ege, piano; and Dr. Douglas Shadle*, musicologist.
Event 3: “A Composer’s Workshop” – A Musical Soirée with Camila Cortina Bello
- Monday, October 9, 2023
- 7:00 PM, Tennessee State University Performing Arts Center, Eddie T. Goins Recital Hall
- Featuring special guest Camila Cortina Bello, composer-pianist; with Blair Brass Quintet*, Blair String Quartet*, Blair Woodwind Quintet*, and Dr. Melissa Rose*, piano.
Event 4: “Florence Price’s Poets” – A Poetic Excursion with Dr. Michelle J. Pinkard
- Thursday, October 12
- 8:00 PM, Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, Steve and Judy Turner Recital Hall
- Featuring special guest Dr. Michelle J. Pinkard, Tennessee State University; with Patrick Dailey, countertenor, Tennessee State University; Dashon Burton*, bass-baritone; and Jennifer McGuire*, piano.
Event 5: “Florence Price: A Celebration” for Orchestra
- Tuesday, November 14, 2023
- 8:00 PM, Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, Martha Rivers Ingram Hall
Featuring Dr. Susan Yang*, piano soloist; Dr. Ernesto Estigarribia*, conductor; and Dr. Douglas Shadle*, musicologist.
* Blair faculty