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FLORENCE PRICE AND LANGSTON HUGHES CAST A BALLOT FOR THE WORKING CLASS
The first public performance of a song by Florence Price and Langston Hughes issues a call to action for today's working class to VOTE!

John Michael Cooper
Oct 27, 20205 min read
619 views
0 comments


THE MUSIC WILL NOT BE SILENCED
Artists have transformed the crisis of the COVID-19 shutdown into an opportunity to innovate and ensure that the music will not be silenced.

John Michael Cooper
Oct 7, 20205 min read
69 views
0 comments


A NEW PERFORMANCE OF FLORENCE B. PRICE’S FANTASIE NÈGRE NO. 4 IN B MINOR BY DR. ELIZABETH HILL
A virtual concert by Elizabeth Hill (piano) of Florence Price's Fantasie nègre No. 4 and William Grant Still's Seven Traceries .

John Michael Cooper
Sep 22, 20202 min read
89 views
0 comments


“OUT OF THE CRUCIBLE” OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
After 82 years, the Fantasie nègre that won Florence Price Honorable Mention in the Wanamaker Contest is making a comeback -- finally.

John Michael Cooper
Sep 14, 20207 min read
234 views
0 comments


CHALLENGING A "SONIC REFUGE OF WHITENESS" IN UNDERGRAD MUSIC HISTORY COURSES
A small Liberal Arts college music-history sequence to abandon its "sonic refuge of Whiteness" and teach more inclusively.

John Michael Cooper
Sep 5, 20205 min read
62 views
0 comments


#SONGSOFCOMFORT:
A new and consciously LIVE music video of Margaret Bonds's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" offers a fresh look at her musical world.

John Michael Cooper
Aug 30, 20204 min read
58 views
0 comments


THE JOY OF WHIMSY
Rediscovering Another Facet of Florence Price’s Musical Imagination On July 6, 1949 Florence B. Price composed a short and brilliant...

John Michael Cooper
Aug 6, 20203 min read
134 views
0 comments


WHEN THE DOVE ENTERS IN
The newly recovered gospel song "When the Dove Enters In" by Margaret Bonds & Langston Hughes delivers a symbolic message for our own time.

John Michael Cooper
Jul 30, 20203 min read
1,411 views
0 comments


OF COMFORT, TRAUMA, AND MUSIC
A new series of videos featuring music of Florence Price and Margaret Bonds shows music's ability to bring comfort and beauty amidst trauma.

John Michael Cooper
Jul 26, 20205 min read
264 views
0 comments


FLORENCE PRICE AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN AFRICAN AMERICAN CLASSICAL STYLE
The Boulanger Initiative's programs of piano music by Florence Price help to understand how Price developed her distinctive musical voice.

John Michael Cooper
Jul 22, 20205 min read
161 views
0 comments


TESTIMONY: A #BLACKLIVESMATTER MANIFESTO
41 readers ages 5-81 voice their support for #BlackLivesMatter in a collaborative reading of a Civil Rights manifesto by W.E.B. Du Bois.

John Michael Cooper
Jul 20, 20202 min read
59 views
0 comments


FLORENCE PRICE AND RACIST STEREOTYPES
In two little-known piano suites Florence Price took on popular Black stereotypes by humanizing her subjects through her music.

John Michael Cooper
Jul 16, 20206 min read
248 views
0 comments


FLORENCE PRICE, TEACHER
The time is ripe for a thorough exploration of Florence Price's teaching pieces for piano and her influence as a teacher.

John Michael Cooper
Jul 14, 20204 min read
158 views
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FLORENCE PRICE AND TRANQUILITY
Florence Price's newly published and recorded Village Scenes (1942) offer a sorely needed contemplation of tranquility, peace, and nature.

John Michael Cooper
Jul 13, 20202 min read
116 views
0 comments


SILENCE AND SOUND
Margaret Bonds's little-known settings of Robert Frost's well-known "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" teach important lessons.

John Michael Cooper
May 24, 20204 min read
239 views
1 comment


SUMMER MOON
Unforeseen beauties appear when we examine Florence Price and her music on her own terms. The newly unearthed “Summer Moon” is an example.

John Michael Cooper
May 11, 20205 min read
268 views
0 comments


THE HEART OF A WOMAN
Florence Price's "The Heart of a Woman" gives eloquent voice to the issues faced by African Americans as well as women.

John Michael Cooper
May 3, 20205 min read
103 views
0 comments


THE WEAPONS OF LIGHT
A little-known aspect of Felix Mendelssohn's 1840 Song of Praise shows the importance of learning and optimism in times of crisis.

John Michael Cooper
Apr 30, 20204 min read
14 views
0 comments


FLORENCE PRICE AND THE SORROW SONGS: "I'm Troubled in My Mind"
Florence Price's newly published piano arrangement of the slave song "Troubled in My Mind" eloquently sounds spirit of the ancestral melody.

John Michael Cooper
Apr 24, 20204 min read
86 views
0 comments


TAKE THE CHALLENGE: GIVE THE CHALLENGE
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented disruption in our daily lives. Musicians can turn that into a creative opportunity in their art.

John Michael Cooper
Apr 16, 20205 min read
198 views
1 comment


John Michael Cooper
Apr 156 min read
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Apr 107 min read
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Mar 1710 min read
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John Michael Cooper
Mar 411 min read
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