March is Women’s History Month, so we went on a little exploration for little known female composers. We found some gems, one of whom is composer, pianist, and teacher Florence Price. One of her students was Margaret Bonds, one of our March birthdays. In 1933 Price was the first black female composer to have a work performed by a major symphony orchestra – the Chicago Symphony at the world’s fair that year. Price was a hard-working composer, composing to pay the bills. Many of her compositions were intended to be played by students, but the body of her work ranges from concertos for piano and violin to symphonies and chamber works.

   Following her death in 1953 Price’s work was overshadowed by changing musical tastes and literally nearly lost. In 2009, a substantial collection of her works was found in an abandoned house on the outskirts of St. Anne, Illinois and consisted of dozens of her compositions including two violin concertos and her 4th symphony. Not only had Price’s work failed to enter the modern American classical music canon, it was very nearly obliterated before it could. Lucky for us, much has been resurrected. This one titled “Nimble Feet” from Dances in the Canebrakes illustrates the influence of the African American spiritual, the blues, and European Romantic techniques on Price’s style. Click here

   Kevin Sylvester is a 6 feet 2 inches tall, weighs 260 pounds and plays the violin. His mother made him pick it up in fifth grade. Wilner Baptiste signed up for summer band thinking he would take up saxophone, but, on a bet (someone else’s, not his) he landed in a strings class. Stuck there, he looked around to see what instruments were available. “No one would pick up the viola” he says. “Literally, I was the only one who wanted to play the viola. So, I picked it up and 20 years later I’m still playing it”. The two met in high school orchestra class and have been playing together since. They are both classically trained, and together they are Black Violin, and they are 2021 Grammy nominees for their contemporary instrumental album, Take the Stairs.

   These two grew up in south Florida raised on hip-hop like a lot of 21st century kids, but have learned to love the classical composers as well. "It started for me with Bach, 'cause Bach is the equalizer, you know?" Sylvester says. "To me, Bach is the hardest thing you can play, because he exposes everything about you. He exposes your weaknesses and makes you work harder. I always think of Bach as, like, the closest composer to divinity."   To most people jazz, hip-hop, funk and classical are musical genres that seem worlds apart. But to Black Violin they are just ingredients brought together in an amalgam of their revolutionary sound. Just because we hope the dark winter is passing and spring is upon us, enjoy a little Vivaldi, courtesy of Black Violin Click here