John Michael Cooper
THE TOMBSTONE’S TALE
The Mother of Florence B. Price The tombstone (a marker, really) is in Achor, Columbiana County, Ohio. On it is the name of Florence...
top of page
Search
John Michael Cooper
- Jan 20
- 6 min
A COMPOSITIONAL COLLABORATION(?) BETWEEN MARGARET BONDS AND FLORENCE PRICE
Sleep Song (text by Joyce Kilmer) Have you ever been in a crowd or out in public and heard a voice that you immediately recognize, even...
104 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jan 7
- 6 min
JOLLY JINKS WITH FLORENCE PRICE
Twenty Years Down the Road, a Great Composer Revisits an Early Work and Asks, “What’s in a Name?” There aren’t many students of...
68 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Dec 20, 2022
- 3 min
FLORENCE PRICE’S MOTHER AND FATHER SUED THE RAILROAD FOR DISCRIMINATION
Speaking Truth to Power In the late nineteenth century, the railroads were the primary means for shipping goods and materials quickly,...
49 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Dec 12, 2022
- 2 min
A MEMORIAL PERFORMANCE FOR FLORENCE B. PRICE
The Second Violin Concerto in 1953 It’s generally said that Florence Price’s moving and innovative Second Violin Concerto was premiered...
48 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jun 3, 2022
- 2 min
FLORENCE PRICE’S SCENES OF TENEMENT LIFE
Today witnesses the release of 2022’s second[1] milestone in the recorded legacy of Florence B. Price: the world-premiere recording of...
22 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Mar 19, 2022
- 3 min
THE WORLD PREMIERE OF FLORENCE PRICE’S FIRST CHORAL-ORCHESTRAL COMPOSITION
The Song of Hope sounds at Ithaca College under the baton of Michael Stern [This post is occasioned by the world première of Florence B....
316 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Mar 11, 2022
- 4 min
JUDGEMENT DAY:
A Gospel Song by Florence Price and Langston Hughes Gets a Belated First Recording Popular exclamations about the trove of Florence Price...
46 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Feb 4, 2022
- 4 min
CELEBRATING A FLORENCE PRICE COMPOSITION THAT DIDN’T WIN
Lady Jess and Ric’key Pageot Record the Recently Published Andante con espressione for Violin and Piano The Summer of 1926 was important...
115 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jan 15, 2022
- 2 min
A CLASSICAL BENEFIT RECITAL FEATURING “NEW” MUSIC BY FLORENCE B. PRICE
Pianist Josh Tatsuo Cullen revives a noble tradition with newly published music Students of music history know that until World War I...
87 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jan 13, 2022
- 5 min
THE VIOLIN AS STORYTELLER
Florence Price's Chamber Works for Violin and Piano When Florence B. Price graduated from the New England Conservatory in 1906, she held...
134 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jan 2, 2022
- 2 min
THE FIRST LIVE RECORDING OF AN AFRO-MODERNIST “COTTON DANCE” (ca. 1940) BY FLORENCE B. PRICE
performed by Michael Lu On New Year’s Eve of the rough-and-tumble year 2021 I got a fabulous musical surprise – 365 days late. The...
165 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Aug 28, 2021
- 4 min
FLORENCE PRICE V. LANGSTON HUGHES AT THE “FEET O’ JESUS”
Langston Hughes’s relationship with the Christian church was . . . complicated. Except that it wasn’t. While he acknowledged that the...
322 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jun 25, 2021
- 3 min
FLORENCE PRICE’S WASHERWOMAN SUITE, ARRANGED FOR STRING QUARTET
YESTERDAY I LEARNED that Elaine Fine, whose arrangement of the now-quite-popular Adoration for violin or viola with piano remains the...
120 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Jun 17, 2021
- 3 min
A FLORENCE PRICE PREMIERE, MARGARET BONDS, AND A SELF-CORRECTION
This post is a short one, but I hope you’ll find it interesting. In an earlier post I remarked that Florence Price had submitted all four...
139 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Apr 24, 2021
- 7 min
THE PROBLEM WITH PROGRAMS (Part 3)
Florence Price’s First Symphony, the 1933-34 World’s Fair, and Three Tribbles (corrected) In Part 1 of this three-part post, I suggested...
529 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Apr 6, 2021
- 9 min
THE PROBLEM WITH PROGRAMS (Part 2)
Florence Price’s First Symphony, the 1933-34 World’s Fair, and Three Tribbles In the first part of this post I talked about the context...
345 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Apr 1, 2021
- 7 min
THE PROBLEM WITH PROGRAMS (Part 1)
Florence Price’s First Symphony, the 1933-34 World’s Fair, and Three Tribbles Never in my career of writing did I expect that one day I...
394 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Mar 7, 2021
- 3 min
THE BEAUTY OF BLACKNESS
Florence B. Price’s “Night” (Text by Bessie Mayle) The poetry, music, and other artworks of the Harlem Renaissance and Chicago Black...
131 views0 comments
John Michael Cooper
- Feb 24, 2021
- 3 min
THE SPOKEN POETRY OF FLORENCE B. PRICE
A Recitation of Her Unpublished Song of Hope [updated Feb. 28, 2021] Sometime in 1930, Florence B. Price (1887-1953) wrote a poem titled...
277 views0 comments
bottom of page