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The composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor always felt the pressure of her parent’s heritage. As the daughter of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a leading the most famous British composers of the turn of the 20th century, Avril’s name was enveloped in the deep shadows of the past.

A World Premiere

In recent months, I contemplated these shadows as I made arrangements to produce the world premiere recording of the composer’s piano concerto from 1936. With its emotional harmonies, heartfelt tunes, and bold rhythms, Avril’s work will offer audiences valuable perspective into how the composer – a wartime composer born in 1903 – conceived of her existence as a female composer of color.

Legacy and Reality

Yet about shadows. It requires time to acclimate, to perceive forms as they really are, to separate fact from misrepresentation, and I had been afraid to face Avril’s past for a period.

I deeply hoped the composer to be her father’s daughter. To some extent, that held. The idyllic English tones of her father’s impact can be detected in several pieces, such as From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to review the headings of her family’s music to understand how he viewed himself as both a champion of English Romanticism as well as a representative of the Black diaspora.

It was here that Samuel and Avril seemed to diverge.

White America assessed the composer by the mastery of his compositions instead of the colour of his skin.

Parental Heritage

While he was studying at the renowned institution, Samuel – the son of a Sierra Leonean father and a British mother – began embracing his background. At the time the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar came to London in the late 19th century, the young musician actively pursued him. He composed the poet’s African Romances as a composition and the following year adapted his verses for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral composition that put Samuel on the map: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on the poet Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an international hit, particularly among the Black community who felt vicarious pride as American society evaluated the composer by the excellence of his art instead of the his background.

Advocacy and Beliefs

Recognition did not reduce his beliefs. In 1900, he participated in the initial Pan African gathering in England where he met the African American intellectual WEB Du Bois and witnessed a series of speeches, such as the subjugation of Black South Africans. He was an activist to his final days. He kept connections with trailblazers for equality including this intellectual and Booker T Washington, delivered his own speeches on ending discrimination, and even talked about racial problems with the US President while visiting to the US capital in the early 1900s. As for his music, Du Bois recalled, “he established his reputation so high as a musician that it will endure.” He passed away in that year, aged 37. However, how would Samuel have made of his child’s choice to be in the African nation in the that decade?

Controversy and Apartheid

“Child of Celebrated Artist expresses approval to South African policy,” declared a title in the Black American publication Jet magazine. This policy “seems to me the right policy”, the composer stated Jet. Upon further questioning, she qualified her remarks: she didn’t agree with apartheid “as a concept” and it “could be left to work itself out, overseen by good-intentioned people of diverse ethnicities”. If Avril had been more attuned to her family’s principles, or from the US under segregation, she might have thought twice about apartheid. Yet her life had shielded her.

Background and Inexperience

“I hold a UK passport,” she stated, “and the authorities did not inquire me about my ethnicity.” Thus, with her “fair” complexion (according to the magazine), she moved within European circles, supported by their admiration for her deceased parent. She delivered a lecture about her family’s work at the Cape Town university and led the broadcasting ensemble in the city, programming the heroic third movement of her concerto, named: “In remembrance of my Father.” Even though a confident pianist on her own, she avoided playing as the lead performer in her piece. Rather, she always led as the maestro; and so the segregated ensemble played under her baton.

Avril hoped, in her own words, she “might bring a transformation”. But by 1954, things fell apart. After authorities discovered her mixed background, she had to depart the country. Her citizenship failed to safeguard her, the diplomatic official recommended her departure or face arrest. She came home, embarrassed as the scale of her inexperience was realized. “The realization was a hard one,” she stated. Compounding her disgrace was the 1955 publication of her controversial discussion, a year after her unceremonious exit from that nation.

A Common Narrative

While I reflected with these legacies, I felt a familiar story. The account of being British until you’re not – that brings to mind troops of color who defended the English in the global conflict and lived only to be refused rightful benefits. Along with the Windrush era,