“Classical pianist Lara Downes knew she was onto something profound when audiences began to react to her show-closing rendition of ‘Fantasie Negre,’ a 1929 composition by the African American composer Florence Beatrice Price,” writes Jim Beaugez in Friday’s (2/5) Smithsonian Magazine. “Price injected a new musical influence by adapting the melody of the soulful spiritual ‘Sinner, Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass.’ ‘People would go nuts,’ recalls Downes…. Downes … also hosts Amplify with Lara Downes on NPR…. Downes’ new project, Rising Sun Music, aims to reframe the history of American classical music by embracing its diverse origins and composers of color like Price, while building a more inclusive future for the genre. The project [includes] many works that have never been recorded before—performed by Downes with guest artists. She plans to release one song per week to streaming platforms, with a new theme every month, beginning February 5…. She hopes it can help others in the same way her journey into the works of black composers brought her to understand her own American identity. ‘We’re all just feeling this urgency to find the places where we come together, right? That’s the only way that we can heal all this division,’ says Downes.”
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