Bea Breaks Barriers!

Florence Beatrice Bea Price loved music from a young age. When she wasnt practicing on the piano, she tapped her feet, drummed her fingers and whistled. Growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas, she was surrounded by Negro spirituals, classical music, Juba dance rhythms, and folk songs and even had the chance to play piano with John William Blind Boone. But as a young Black girl living in the South, Bea wasnt offered the same chances as white children. Not allowed to perform in public, Beas first recital was in her living room. But Bea was not deterred. She studied hard, rose to the top of her class and was accepted to the New England Conservatory of Musicone of two Black studentsand majored in both music and composition. Bea never forgot her roots and wove all kinds of musical genres into her musical compositions and spirituals.