Students of New York’s Special Music School meet with Philadelphia Orchestra Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Philadelphia, February 3, 2022. Photo: Jose F. Moreno/Staff Photographer
“In New York, one group has been busily tending the legacy of Florence Price, writing and promoting a children’s book on the long-neglected Black composer. At about the same time, a certain famous musical ensemble in Philadelphia has become Price’s most visible orchestral champion,” writes Peter Dobrin in Sunday’s (2/6) Philadelphia Inquirer. “The two forces met Thursday at the Kimmel Center for a day of Florence Price synergy…. The authors of Who Is Florence Price? are middle-schoolers…. They first crossed paths with Philadelphia Orchestra music director Yannick Nézet-Séguin … when they were all guests on a recent episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show.… During the [Philadelphia] visit, they sat in on a rehearsal … put on a live version of their book [and attended] the Philadelphia Orchestra’s subscription concert [featuring] Price’s alternately exuberant and tender Symphony No. 1…. The Philadelphia Orchestra has been performing and recording [Price’s] work with Nézet-Séguin.… The school’s students [have also] produced a book about the friendship between Margaret Bonds and Langston Hughes, and have another on the way about composer Julius Eastman.… Nézet-Séguin [says]: … ‘I wish I would have had this book when I was a kid. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, and, yes, Price.’ ”
