Title Page | Collection Summary | Biographical/Organizational Note | Scope and Content | Arrangement
Biographical Note
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 1887 April 9 | Born Florence Beatrice Smith in Little Rock, Arkansas, to dentist James H. Smith (1835-1910) and Florence Gulliver |
| 1897 | Attended the Sisters of Mercy Convent School in Little Rock |
| 1902 | Graduated from Capitol Hill School in Little Rock as valedictorian |
| 1903-1906 | Attended the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where she studied composition and counterpoint with George Chadwick and Frederick Converse Graduated with an artist diploma in organ and a teaching certificate |
| 1906 | Taught at the Cotton Plant Academy in Woodruff County, Arkansas |
| 1907-1910 | Taught at Shorter College in North Little Rock, Arkansas |
| 1910-1912 | Head of the music department at Clark University in Atlanta, Georgia |
| 1912 September 25 | Married Thomas Jewell Price (divorced 1931) and relocated to Little Rock where she continued to teach piano and began composing many instructional pieces for piano that she published |
| 1915 | Birth of son Thomas C. Price (died 1920s) |
| 1917 | Birth of daughter Florence Louise (Florence Robinson) |
| 1921 | Birth of daughter Edith Price |
| 1920s | Denied membership to the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association |
| 1926 May | Won second place in Opportunity’s Second Annual Contest for Negro Writers, funded by Casper Holtstein through Opportunity: Journal of Negro Life, for her suite for piano, In the Land O’Cotton |
| 1927 | Relocated with her family to Chicago, Illinois, where she became involved in the Chicago Music Association |
| circa 1927 | Attended the American Conservatory of Music and the Chicago Musical College where she studied with Arthur Olaf Anderson, Carl Busch, Wesley LaViolette, and Leo Sowerby |
| 1928 | Publication of her work for piano, At the Cotton Gin. New York, G. Schirmer, Inc. |
| circa 1931 | Published radio jingles under the pseudonym VeeJay and worked as a silent film organist in theaters throughout Chicago |
| 1932 October | Won two first prizes in the Wanamaker National Composition Competition: for her Sonata in E minor in the symphonic category and her Sonata for Piano in the piano composition category |
| 1932 December | Katherine Dunham’s dance troop premiered a work based on Price’s composition Fantasie Nègre no. 1 in E minor, with Margaret Bonds as pianist |
| 1933 June 15 | Premiered Symphony no. 1 in E minor with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra directed by Frederick Stock |
| 1934 | Premiered Piano Concerto with the Chicago Women’s Symphony Orchestra and piano soloist Margaret Bonds |
| 1935 | Invited to perform a piano recital of her own compositions in Little Rock at the segregated Dunbar High School |
| 1939 April 9 | Marian Anderson performed Price’s spiritual arrangement of "My Soul’s Been Anchored in de Lord" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., for more than 75,000 people |
| circa 1940 | Premiered Symphony no. 3 with the Michigan Symphony Orchestra and performed her Piano Concerto to a standing ovation |
| 1943 November 6 | Wrote to Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, requesting he examine samples of her work |
| 1950 | Commissioned by Sir John Barberolie, an orchestra conductor in Manchester, England, to compose an overture based on American spirituals |
| 1953 February 18 | Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed an arrangement of her song "Two Little Negro Dances: Rabbit Foot and Ticklin’ Toes" on WGN-TV |
| 1953 June 3 | Died of cardiac arrest in Chicago |
| 1964 | Price Elementary School in Chicago named in her honor |
| 1978 | Singer Leontyne Price performed songs by Florence Price at the White House for President Jimmy Carter |
| 2010 | Re-orchestration of Price’s Piano Concerto based on her original piano sketches by Center for Black Music Research composer Trevor Weston |
| 2018 | Posthumously inducted into the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame |