ONEcomposer partners with Philadelphia Orchestra for Florence Price premiere
February 9, 2021
As the Philadelphia Orchestra took the stage in January to record its digital performances for the spring season, a pair of Cornell faculty were there to witness history in the making as part of their new arts advocacy initiative: ONEcomposer.
Housed in Cornell’s Department of Music, ONEcomposer celebrates musicians whose contributions have been historically erased, and its inaugural season is devoted to American composer Florence Price (1887-1953).
“Piano Concerto in One Movement” was a piece Price held in particularly high regard, often sending it to conductors as an example of her best work. Last year, ONEcomposer had secured funding for an on-campus performance of this work featuring pianist Michelle Cann, the newly appointed Eleanor Sokoloff Chair of Piano Studies at the Curtis Institute. But when the COVID pandemic struck, ONEcomposer co-founders Tamara Acosta, visiting lecturer of voice at Cornell and assistant professor of voice at Ithaca College, and Stephen Spinelli, Cornell’s assistant director of choral programs, reimagined the possibilities.