“It’s been a year of great success for the Fort Smith Symphony,” write Jocelyn Murphy and Becca Martin-Brown in Sunday’s (12/29) Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (Little Rock). “The Florence Price Symphony No. 4, recorded in May 2018 by the Fort Smith Symphony under the baton of music director John Jeter and released in January 2019 on the Naxos label, made the list of the 25 ‘Best Classical Music Tracks of 2019,’ according to The New York Times…. That’s not the Fort Smith Symphony’s only year-end accolade: WQXR, New York City’s Classical Public Radio Station, listed the Florence Price recording in its best classical recording list for 2019. And the Florence Price album made the short list of Zoe Madonna and Jeremy Eichler’s top 10 classical albums of 2019 in The Boston Globe. ‘The Florence Price recording has received major national and international press since its release, and we are thrilled that this has continued throughout the year,’ says Jeter. ‘This sort of recognition is wonderful for our city, our region and the state. We thank Naxos for allowing us to bring this wonderful musical heritage of Arkansas to the world stage.’ Jeter says in 2020 ‘there are plans for more recordings.’ ”
In photo: composer Florence Price
