Watch Party: Price's Piano Concerto in One Movement, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor, and Michelle Cann, pianist

The spotlight is on composer Florence Price for ONEcomposer's inaugural season. When the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed her Symphony in E minor in 1933, she became the first Black woman to gain a major symphonic premiere in the United States. When Marian Anderson took to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to sing for a crowd of 70,000 onlookers in 1938, it was Price that she asked to arrange spirituals for the orchestra accompanying her. Despite extraordinary achievement in her lifetime, Price's legacy is conspicuously absent from our history books.

Price was particularly proud of her Piano Concerto in One Movement. It was one of two works that she sent to Sergei Koussevitsky, urging him to consider a performance of her music. Until last year, the manuscript of this work was presumed lost. In collaboration with publisher G. Schirmer (owner of the Price estate), ONEcomposer planned a Bailey Hall performance of this newly rediscovered orchestration for March of 2021, featuring pianist Michelle Cann. When the global pandemic hit, ONEcomposer contacted the Philadelphia Orchestra with an appeal that they take on this opportunity and bring Michelle Cann to their Digital Stage. The administrative staff and artistic director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin leapt at the opportunity. We are thrilled to partner with our country's finest orchestra to bring this content to your living rooms, free of charge.