Florence Beatrice Smith Price was born on April 9, 1887 in Little Rock, Arkansas to James and Florence Smith. Her father was a dentist and her mother had numerous careers working as a piano teacher, school teacher and business owner. He had two brothers who both knew how to play the piano. Florence as well as her brothers received music lessons from their mother who published some of her musical works. Price gave his first performance on the piano at the tender age of four. However, he did not write his first published composition until he was eleven; the other compositions were published during high school. She graduated valedictorian at age 14 from Capitol High School in 1903. She followed in her mother's footsteps and went to study at the New England Conservatory of Music, where she was only allowed to attend because she could pass for Mexican. Despite the racial issues, Smith was able to make all the right friendships with other African American composers who led her to the best mentors. She was mentored by George Whitefield Chadwick and Fredrick Converse. There he earned and received his degree as an organist and piano teacher in 1906. After graduation, he returned to Arkansas to teach at Cotton Plant-Arkadelphia for a year, then moved to teach at another college. She remained there until 1910, then moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to teach at Clark Atlanta in the music department until 1912. She eventually returned to Little Rock, Arkansas, where she married Thomas J. Price, a well-known lawyer. She gave birth to two sons. One of the two children unfortunately died as an infant. The Prices moved from Arkansas in 1927 after suffering severe racial trauma from a brutal lynching...... middle of paper ......d in the titles of his shorter works: Arkansas Jitter, Bayou Dance and Dance of the Cotton Blossoms.Price died of a stroke on June 3, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois. It is believed that his musical contributions were soon overshadowed by the emphasis placed on more modernist composers who suited fashionable tastes. Many of Price's compositions were lost. However, over time, as the work of African American composers began to receive proper attention, her repertoire received new recognition. In 2001, the Women's Philharmonic released an album featuring Price's work, and in December 2011, a recording of her "Concerto in One Movement" and "Symphony in E Minor" was released, performed by pianist Karen Walwyn and the New Black Repertory Ensemble. In February 2013, classical music personality Terrance McKnight of New York radio station WQXR produced and hosted a retrospective of Price's career.