On Friday, May 12th at 7:30 p.m., Dr. Jon Giblin will present an organ recital on the music of Florence Price at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Peoria.
Born in Arkansas in 1888, Price’s music is influenced by her black cultural upbringing. At age 15, she was accepted to the prestigious New England Conservatory in Boston studying organ, piano, and composition. She moved to Chicago in 1927 where she taught music, played organ for silent movies, and composed numerous works. Her First Symphony won a national competition in 1932 and was subsequently premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; becoming the first work of an African-American woman to be performed by a major orchestra.
Despite this and other successes, Price’s gender and race hampered her career as a composer. Recent interest in Price’s music has brought to light her unique compositional style, including discoveries of several long-lost works.
Dr. Giblin will be performing all four of Price’s major organ works; the Passacaglia and Fugue, Sonata for Organ, Suite for Organ, and Variations on a Folksong. Much of this music has only been made publicly available in the past 2 years.
This free recital is presented by the Peoria Chapter of the American Guild of Organists.
Peoria Chapter of the American Guild of Organists 