Florence Price: Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight
George Gershwin: A Concert Panorama
Saturday, May 4, 2019, 3:00 pm
North Andover High School Auditorium
430 Osgood Street
North Andover, MA
Map • Phone: 978-682-4050
With piano accompaniment
PURCHASE TICKETSThis concert is funded in part by a grant from Choral Arts New England.
About the Concert
Florence Price (1887–1953) was the first African-American woman to be recognized as a symphony composer, and the first to have a composition played by a major orchestra (Chicago Symphony Orchestra, 1933). In 2009, a substantial collection of her works and papers was found in an abandoned house on the outskirts of Chicago, Illinois. Among these works was Abraham Lincoln Walks at Midnight, a 30-minute work for chorus, soloists, and piano, set to a poem by Vachel Lindsay. Andover Choral Society will sing from a new performing edition of this work, prepared by ACS Music Director Dr. Michael Driscoll, from Price’s unpublished manuscript. The program will also include our soloists performing a selection of art songs by Florence Price as well as some of her arrangements of African-American spirituals.
Among the audience members at the 1933 Chicago Symphony Orchestra performance of Price’s symphony was George Gershwin, one of the best-known American composers of the 1930s! Our program will feature a selection of Gershwin songs sung by both the chorus and soloists.
We are thrilled to also feature The Andover Baptist Church Unity Choir directed by Michael Belcher.
