Twelve finalists from the United States, India, China, and Thailand are gathering in Fayetteville this week as the University of Arkansas prepares to host the 2026 Florence Price International Piano Competition. The two-day event, running this Friday and Saturday at the Faulkner Performing Arts Center, pairs the next generation of classical talent with a deep dive into the historical archives of one of the most significant composers of the 20th century.
For the University of Arkansas Libraries Special Collections Division, the competition offers a prime platform to showcase an extensive repository of Florence Price’s papers. Housed in Mullins Library, the collection preserves published and unpublished music, personal diaries, and original manuscripts that continue to reshape how modern musicians understand her artistic legacy. During the competition, a pop-up display will be presented by Special Collections at the Faulkner Performing Arts Center featuring original scores of the music to be performed.
From Little Rock History to Global Recognition
Price, who was born in Little Rock in 1887, achieved a historic milestone in 1933 when her Symphony No. 1 in E minor was performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. She became the first African American woman to have a composition performed by a major American orchestra. Over her lifetime, she composed more than 300 works, combining rigorous classical training with the rich, distinct melodies of African American spirituals.
Joshua Youngblood, associate dean for Special Collections, emphasized the depth of the university’s holdings during a recent studio interview. According to Youngblood, the institution maintains six archives related to the composer, ranging from professional publishing papers to intimate family materials from her upbringing in Little Rock.
“And so we have not just one or two pieces. We have a lot of material,” Youngblood told KUAF, noting that the archives welcome visiting performers, students, and researchers to see the material or stop by to do research.
Xiting Yang, founder and artistic director of the competition and a teaching assistant professor in the U of A Department of Music, also highlighted the multifaceted nature of Price’s catalog. Speaking to KUAF, Yang pointed to pieces like “The Adoration”—inspired by spiritual traditions—as evidence of a rare combination of raw talent and rigorous compositional mastery.
Baylor University Scholar Delivers Price Piano Sonata Lecture
The weekend’s programming extends well beyond the competition stage. On Friday, Nov. 6, at 3 p.m. in Mullins Library room 449, Baylor University visiting scholar and competition juror Michael Clark will deliver a lecture titled “Deciphering Price’s Piano Sonata From Her Manuscripts.”
Clark’s presentation addresses a fascinating gap in musicological history. Only one manuscript was available to musicologist Rae Linda Brown when she published the sonata’s first edition in 1997. However, the 2009 recovery of hundreds of documents from Price’s summer residence brought to light a second, much earlier manuscript. During his lecture, Clark will examine the distinct differences between the two versions and what they reveal about interpreting the composer’s largest solo piano work. Original versions of the Piano Sonata from Special Collections will be on display during the talk.
Grammy Award-winning pianist Michelle Cann will anchor the artistic lineup by chairing the jury and performing the opening recital at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 6, at the Faulkner Performing Arts Center. Recording Price’s Piano Concerto in One Movement alongside the New York Youth Symphony earned Cann a 2023 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance, which was followed by a 2025 Grammy Award for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album for Beyond the Years: Unpublished Songs of Florence Price, a project recorded with soprano Karen Slack.
Alongside Cann, the competition jury includes Clark and Jeongwon Hamm of the University of Oklahoma. The University of Arkansas Libraries are sponsoring the competition’s $1,000 grand prize. The event is open to the public, and advance tickets can be reserved through the official university ticketing portal.
