Florence Price Birthday Celebration Concert

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Tuesday / April 9, 2024 / 8:00 p.m.

Seully Hall

8 Fenway, Floor 4

Boston

02215

United States

(View Map)

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Boston Conservatory at Berklee presents a concert of music by pioneering African American composer Florence Price on the occasion of her 137th birthday. Join Conservatory and College faculty, the Conservatory Chorale, and guests from the award-winning ensemble Castle of Our Skins for an exploration of Price’s works for solo piano, art songs, instrumental chamber music, and choral works. The program will include live improvisations on themes by Price.

Program Information

Repertoire

All selections by Florence Price (1887-1953)

Works for Piano:

Andante from Sonata in E Minor

Karen Walwyn, piano

Child Asleep; Sweet Dreams (arr. Suzanna Sifter)

Suzanna Sifter, piano

Chamber Music:

Piano Quintet in A Minor
I. Allegro non troppo

Jonathan Bass, piano
Matthew Vera, violin
Grant Houston, violin
Ashleigh Gordon, viola
Francesca McNeeley, cello

Art Songs and Concert Spirituals:

“To My Little Son”
Text by Julia Johnson Davis

“Monologue for the Working Class”
Text by Langston Hughes

“Bewilderment”
Text by Langston Hughes

Rebecca Shrimpton, mezzo-soprano
John P. McGee, piano

“My Dream”
Text by Langston Hughes

“Because”
Text by Paul Lawrence Dunbar

“He Cannot Sleep” (from “Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight”)
Text by Vachel Lindsay

“My Soul’s Been Anchored in the Lord”
Text: Traditional Spiritual

Philip Lima, baritone
John P. McGee, piano

Choral Settings:

“Roll, Jordan, Roll”
Text: Traditional Spiritual

“Study War No More”
Text: Traditional Spiritual

“Benedictus” (from Communion Service in F)

“Wander-Thirst”
Text by Gerald Gould

“Praise the Lord”
Text from Psalm 117, King James Bible

Conservatory Choir

About the Artists

Castle of our Skins (COOS) is the noted Boston-based Black arts institution making waves on the concert music scene, celebrating the richness of Black artistry. Now in its eleventh season, COOS challenges inequities by showcasing the beauty found in the achievements of Black artists and historical figures, and fostering the creation of new works and cultural connections.

Ensemble

MC
Aja Burrell Wood

PIANO
Jonathan Bass
David Limina
John P. McGee
Suzanna Sifter
Karen Walwyn

VIOLIN*
Grant Houston
Matthew Vera

VIOLA*
Ashleigh Gordon

CELLO*
Francesca McNeeley

MEZZO-SOPRANO
Rebecca Shrimpton

BARITONE
Philip Lima

CONDUCTORS
Stephen Spinelli
Naomi Bennett
Edith Hernandez

* members of Castle of our Skins

Concert Services Staff

Senior Manager of Concert Services – Luis Herrera
Coordinator, Concert Services – Matthew Carey
Concert Production Manager – Kendall Floyd
Performance Technology Technicians – Sara Pagiaro, Goran Daskalov

Special Thanks

Special thanks to our program MC, Aja Burrell Wood, managing director of the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice. A violinist, Wood is a noted ethnomusicologist, educator, and curator who has a special connection to the works of Florence Price, having served as a copy editor for the late Rae Linda Brown’s prize-winning biography The Heart of a Woman: The Life and Music of Florence B. Price. Thank you to Matthew Carey, Interim Executive Director Michael Shinn, and Dean Sean Skeete for supporting this effort.

Boston Conservatory thanks audience members for viewing this program information online. This paperless program saved 130 sheets of paper, 14 gallons of water, and 12 pounds of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas emissions.