Florence B. Price was born in 1887 in Little Rock, Arkansas. She graduated high school as valedictorian at 14 years old and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in organ and piano performance from the New England Conservatory in 1906. She relocated to Chicago, and in 1933 the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed the world premiere of her Symphony No. 1 in E minor, making her the first black female composer to have her work performed by a major American orchestra. Florence B. Price composed more than 300 works in her lifetime that include symphonies, organ works, piano concertos, violin works, arrangements of spirituals, art songs, and chamber works.