My Dream: Art Songs and Spirituals by Florence Price

My Dream: Art Songs and Spirituals by Florence Price. Richard Heard, tenor; Roy L. Belfield Jr., piano. (Percentage Records; 36:15)

Four Encore Songs: "Tobacco," "A Flea and a Fly," "Come, Come Said Tom's Father," "Song of the Open Road." "Sunset," "Dawn's Awakening," "An April Day," "My Dream," "Out of the South Blew a Wind," "Song to the Dark Virgin," "To My Little Son," "Go Down, Moses," "Feet o' Jesus," "I'm Working on my Building," "My Little Soul's Goin' to Shine," "Weary Traveler," "You Won't Find a Man like Jesus," "I'm Goin' to Lay Down my Heavy Load."

Florence Price (1887-1953) was the first African American woman to be generally recognized as a symphonic composer. A native of Arkansas and a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, she was a highly regarded music teacher in Little Rock until escalating racial tensions compelled her and her attorney husband to relocate to Chicago in 1927. She was able to build a busy and satisfying life of teaching, performance, and composition while also continuing her own musical education. Price's most exciting breakthrough came when her Symphony in E Minor earned her a Wannamaker Foundation Award and the opportunity to have the work performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933. She was well known for her art songs and arrangements of spirituals, several of which were championed by contralto Marian Anderson, and that...