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The composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor constantly bore the weight of her father’s reputation. Being the child of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a leading the prominent British musicians of the early 20th century, Avril’s name was enveloped in the deep shadows of bygone eras.

A World Premiere

In recent months, I reflected on these shadows as I prepared to make the world premiere recording of the composer’s piano concerto from 1936. Featuring emotional harmonies, soulful lyricism, and confident beats, Avril’s work will provide new listeners deep understanding into how this artist – a wartime composer born in 1903 – conceived of her world as a female composer of color.

Shadows and Truth

However about legacies. It requires time to acclimate, to perceive forms as they really are, to separate fact from misinterpretation, and I was reluctant to face the composer’s background for some time.

I deeply hoped her to be her father’s daughter. Partially, that held. The rustic British sounds of parental inspiration can be observed in numerous compositions, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). However, one need only examine the headings of her father’s compositions to understand how he identified as both a champion of British Romantic style as well as a voice of the Black diaspora.

It was here that parent and child appeared to part ways.

American society evaluated Samuel by the excellence of his art as opposed to the colour of his skin.

Family Background

As a student at the Royal College of Music, the composer – the child of a Sierra Leonean father and a Caucasian parent – turned toward his background. Once the Black American writer Paul Laurence Dunbar visited the UK in that era, the aspiring artist was keen to meet him. He adapted Dunbar’s African Romances into music and the following year adapted his verses for a musical work, Dream Lovers. This was followed by the choral composition that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an international hit, notably for Black Americans who felt shared pride as white America assessed his work by the brilliance of his art instead of the his background.

Advocacy and Beliefs

Success did not reduce his activism. In 1900, he participated in the pioneering African conference in London where he encountered the prominent scholar WEB Du Bois and saw a variety of discussions, including on the oppression of Black South Africans. He remained an advocate to his final days. He sustained relationships with trailblazers for equality including this intellectual and Booker T Washington, spoke publicly on racial equality, and even talked about issues of racism with President Theodore Roosevelt on a trip to the White House in 1904. Regarding his compositions, the scholar reflected, “he wrote his name so notably as a composer that it will long be remembered.” He died in the early 20th century, in his thirties. However, how would the composer have made of his offspring’s move to work in this country in the that decade?

Controversy and Apartheid

“Child of Celebrated Artist shows support to apartheid system,” appeared as a heading in the Black American publication Jet magazine. This policy “seems to me the right policy”, Avril told Jet. When asked to explain, she revised her statement: she did not support with the system “fundamentally” and it “should be allowed to resolve itself, guided by good-intentioned people of diverse ethnicities”. Were the composer more attuned to her father’s politics, or born in the US under segregation, she could have hesitated about this system. Yet her life had shielded her.

Background and Inexperience

“I hold a UK passport,” she remarked, “and the officials did not inquire me about my ethnicity.” Thus, with her “porcelain-white” skin (according to the magazine), she floated among the Europeans, supported by their admiration for her renowned family member. She gave a talk about her parent’s compositions at the University of Cape Town and directed the broadcasting ensemble in Johannesburg, featuring the inspiring part of her concerto, titled: “Dedicated to my Father.” Although a skilled pianist on her own, she never played as the featured artist in her concerto. On the contrary, she consistently conducted as the leader; and so the apartheid orchestra followed her lead.

She desired, in her own words, she “may foster a shift”. However, by that year, the situation collapsed. Once officials became aware of her African heritage, she was forced to leave the country. Her British passport failed to safeguard her, the UK representative recommended her departure or face arrest. She went back to the UK, feeling great shame as the magnitude of her innocence dawned. “This experience was a hard one,” she stated. Adding to her humiliation was the 1955 publication of her ill-fated Jet interview, a year after her unceremonious exit from that nation.

A Recurring Theme

While I reflected with these legacies, I felt a recurring theme. The account of holding UK citizenship until you’re not – which recalls Black soldiers who served for the British during the global conflict and survived only to be refused rightful benefits. Along with the Windrush era,