Romance for flute and piano Op. 23

Amy Beach: Romance for flute and piano Op. 23 was written in 1893. Originally for violin and piano. The work is dedicated to the pioneering American virtuoso violinist Maud Powell, who was a close personal friend of the composer. Beach and Powell premiered the piece together on July 6, 1893, at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. It was performed during the Women’s Musical Congress, an event specifically designed to highlight the contributions of female musicians. The performance was an overwhelming success; the audience was so moved that they reportedly demanded the duo play the entire six-minute work a second time immediately.

Despite her fame, she was professionally known as "Mrs. H.H.A. Beach" following her 1885 marriage to a prominent Boston physician. Her husband restricted her public piano performances to two per year (usually for charity), which led her to focus primarily on composition.
In 1893, Beach was 26 years old and establishing herself as America's leading female composer. That same year, she was commissioned to write the Festival Jubilate, Op. 17, for the dedication of the Woman’s Building at the Chicago World's Fair.
1893 was the year Antonín Dvořák pronounced that American composers should look to African American and Native American melodies for inspiration. While Beach's Romance remains firmly in the European Romantic tradition, the debates of that year directly influenced her next major project, the Gaelic Symphony (1894–1896).