Demo: Florence Price: Symphony No. 3 in c minor

Flo­rence Price’s Sym­pho­ny No. 3 was com­mis­sioned by the Works Progress Administration’s Fed­er­al Music Project dur­ing the height of the Great Depres­sion. It was first per­formed at the Detroit Insti­tute of Arts on Novem­ber 6, 1940, by the Detroit Civic Orches­tra under the con­duc­tor Val­ter Poole.

The com­po­si­tion is Price’s third sym­pho­ny, fol­low­ing her Sym­pho­ny in E minor—the first sym­pho­ny by a black woman to be per­formed by a major Amer­i­can orchestra—and her lost Sym­pho­ny No. 2.