Louisville Civic Orchestra to close out Black History Month with special free concert

Florence Price.

The Louisville Civic Orchestra will pay tribute tp 20th Century American composer Florence Price and other African-American composers with a special performance of Price’s “Symphony No. 3” on Saturday, Feb. 29.

The concert, which will be held at Christ Temple Apostolic Church, will also include works by Julio Racine and Michael Abels. Price lived in the first half of the 20th century, a time when she and many other black composers were overlooked. But with her work finding new recognition, the concert seemed like a fitting end to February for the Orchestra.

Jason Hart Raff, LCO’s artistic director and conductor, said the idea to pay tribute to black composers came about organically. Raff said he had a chance meeting with Michael Ford, an associate pastor at Christ Temple, and Ford asked if the orchestra would be interested in performing at the church.

“Soon; the idea of a concert celebrating black composers for a predominantly black audience began to take shape,” Raff tells Hello Louisville.

Raff said around that time, he learned that actor-director Jordan Peele had hired Abels, a black orchestral composer Michael Abels to conduct the score for the 2019 film “Get Out.” That prompted the orchestra to include a piece by Abels titled “Liquify,” and local Haitian-American composer Julio Racine also has a piece in the concert.

“All the blocks just kind of fell into place,” Raff says.

The concert will celebrates the past and current contributions of other minority composers to the canon of American symphonic music, as well as put on full display the many influences Price utilized in her music as a composer who fell between the late American romanticism and the dawn of the modern era in music.

“What has been most interesting about preparing this concert is discovering the extraordinary diversity within the canon of works by black American composers,” Raff says. “Each composer on this program has their own unique voice that is quite distinct from the others, and listeners can meet and appreciate each of these works on its own terms. In the end, the music speaks for itself and listeners are in for a new and exciting experience.”

The concert will be 3-5 p.m.; Christ Temple Apostlic is located at 723 S. 45th St. Admission is free, but guests are encouraged to make donations at the concert or online.