Written by Kyle MacMillan for the Chicago Sun-Times. Photo by Titilayo Ayangade.
Almost forgotten after her death in 1953, African-American composer Florence Price’s star has risen dramatically in the last 15 years or so, and pianist Michelle Cann’s championing her music has played a significant role in that revival.
Now with a solo piano program titled “The Women of Chicago’s Black Renaissance,” Cann has set her sights on four other under-recognized Black female composers from Chicago, three of whom had connections to Price.
“I started with Florence Price and that’s great,” Cann said. “Everybody knows her name now. What about all these other names? So many of these names need advocates. They need us to dig up the past and say: ‘Hey, people did not really hear this but you should hear it.’”
Cann debuted the line-up in a slightly different form in April 2023 at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J., and she will present it for the first time in Chicago Jan. 24 under the auspices of University of Chicago Presents.
Including the program on the series’ 2024-25 season was a no-brainer, said Sarah Curran, who became executive director of U of Chicago Presents in June 2023 after two seasons in an interim capacity.
“She’s a phenomenal artist,” Curran said, “and this program just speaks so directly to Chicago audiences, Chicago history and Chicago’s role in classical music and American music. And specifically, the women of Chicago’s Black renaissance are given their flowers as much as they ought to be.”
Cann will sprinkle the concert with commentary, bringing together both her background as a top soloist and longtime pedagogue, whose current teaching posts include the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where she serves as the Eleanor Sokoloff Chair in Piano Studies.
“She will bring some really great insights into the personal relationships, the historical relationships — the way these women influenced each other,” Curran said.
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Read the full article in the Chicago Sun-Times here.