Experience Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement with Grammy Winner Michelle Cann
Piano Concerto in One Movement by Florence Price is fascinating, both musically and historically. She was the first African American female composer to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra and wrote over 300 compositions during her life. Maestro Intriligator introduced the CSO audience to her work during the 2022/23 season.
The Concerto was composed as a single movement, with three sections: a moderato opening, an adagio, and an allegretto Juba dance finale. It features blues, spirituals, and Romanticism. It takes about 20 minutes to perform and premiered in 1934 with Price as the soloist.
Price, who lived from 1887 to 1953, was born and raised in racially segregated Alabama. She began her music studies early, giving her first piano recital at age four and publishing a composition at eleven. She attended the New England Conservatory. Because of discrimination against African Americans, her mother encouraged her to identify as being of Mexican descent. After graduation, she spent several years teaching in Alabama. Then, she and her family moved to Chicago to avoid racial discrimination.
While the Piano Concerto in One Movement was performed several times during Price’s lifetime, after her death, much of her music, including the full score of the Piano Concerto, was either lost or scattered and was not performed for decades. When her family sold her summer home in 2009, the buyers discovered many of her missing manuscripts. This discovery has sparked renewed interest in Price’s work. It is fortunate that the work by this talented woman, who was discriminated against based on both gender and race, is experiencing a comeback.
Hearing Michelle Cann, who is considered a leading interpreter of Florence Price’s work, will be a special musical treat.
Guest Artist, Michelle Cann
Michelle Cann will be the featured artist for this concert. This will be a special treat, because in addition to her being an “exquisite” pianist, who has performed with several prestigious orchestras, she is recognized as a leading interpreter of the piano music of Florence Price. Her recording of the Piano Concerto in One Movement with the New York Youth Symphony won a Grammy Award in 2023 for Best Orchestral Performance. She has been described as “technically fearless with…an enormous, rich sound.”
The orchestras with which she has performed include the Atlanta and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Cann is frequently invited to teach master classes, give lecture-demonstrations, and lead teaching residencies. She has recorded lessons for Tonebase, the popular piano lesson platform. She joined the Curtis piano faculty in 2020 as the inaugural Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies. She is also on the piano faculty of the Manhattan School of Music.
Cann holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from the Cleveland Institute of Music and an Artist’s Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music.
Michelle Cann is represented by Curtis Artist Management at Curtis Institute of Music.
References:
(2022). The MSO announces two events involving works by Margaret Walker. Jackson Advocate, 84(21), 18A.
MSU Texas. (2024, October). Music series at Akin. https://news.msutexas.edu/2024/10/music-series-at-akin.php?image
Sanford-Hill Piano Series. (n.d.). Michelle Cann | Western Washington University. Retrieved [2026, March], from https://cfpa.wwu.edu/event/sanford-hill-piano-series-michelle-cann?page=1
Cann, M. (n.d.). Michelle Cann | Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved [2026, March], from https://www.aso.org/artists/detail/michelle-cann
(2024). Welcome To Minneapolis! The American Music Teacher, 74(3), 34-35.