Margaret Bonds was an African-American pianist and prolific composer born in Chicago in 1913.
At Chicago's 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair, she became the first black soloist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra when she performed Florence Price's Concerto in F Minor for piano and orchestra.
Price's piece was also the first orchestral work by an African-American woman to be performed by the symphony.
Bonds was known for setting poems by Langston Hughes to music, and she frequently composed arrangements of African-American spirituals.
She died in 1972 in Los Angeles.
This is her work “Minstrel Man,” from the poetry song cycle “Three Dream Portraits” by Langston Hughes.
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