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Avril Coleridge-Taylor continually felt the pressure of her parent’s legacy. As the offspring of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the most famous English artists of the early 20th century, Avril’s name was shrouded in the lingering obscurity of history.

A World Premiere

Earlier this year, I contemplated these shadows as I got ready to make the inaugural album of Avril’s piano concerto from 1936. With its impassioned harmonies, expressive melodies, and bold rhythms, this piece will offer music lovers deep understanding into how this artist – an artist in conflict born in 1903 – imagined her world as a woman of colour.

Legacy and Reality

Yet about shadows. One needs patience to adapt, to perceive forms as they truly exist, to separate fact from misrepresentation, and I was reluctant to face Avril’s past for a period.

I had so wanted the composer to be a reflection of her father. Partially, she was. The rustic British sounds of her father’s impact can be detected in numerous compositions, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). However, one need only review the headings of her parent’s works to understand how he heard himself as not only a champion of UK romantic tradition as well as a voice of the Black diaspora.

It was here that parent and child began to differ.

American society evaluated Samuel by the excellence of his art instead of the his racial background.

Samuel’s African Roots

As a student at the Royal College of Music, her father – the child of a parent from Sierra Leone and a white English mother – turned toward his African roots. Once the poet of color Paul Laurence Dunbar visited the UK in 1897, the aspiring artist was keen to meet him. He set Dunbar’s African Romances to music and the subsequent year adapted his verses for a musical work, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral work that established his reputation: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, the piece was an worldwide sensation, particularly among Black Americans who felt vicarious pride as American society evaluated the composer by the quality of his music instead of the his background.

Principles and Actions

Fame failed to diminish his beliefs. In 1900, he attended the initial Pan African gathering in England where he made the acquaintance of the African American intellectual this influential figure and observed a range of talks, such as the mistreatment of African people in South Africa. He was a campaigner until the end. He kept connections with early civil rights leaders including Du Bois and this leader, gave addresses on racial equality, and even talked about issues of racism with the US President while visiting to the US capital in that year. As for his music, reminisced Du Bois, “he made his mark so prominently as a creative artist that it will long be remembered.” He succumbed in the early 20th century, aged 37. But what would her father have reacted to his offspring’s move to be in this country in the 1950s?

Controversy and Apartheid

“Child of Celebrated Artist expresses approval to S African Bias,” ran a headline in the community journal Jet magazine. Apartheid “appeared to me the correct approach”, the composer stated Jet. When pushed to clarify, she revised her statement: she did not support with the system “in principle” and it “could be left to resolve itself, guided by good-intentioned residents of all races”. Were the composer more aligned to her parent’s beliefs, or raised in segregated America, she might have thought twice about this system. However, existence had shielded her.

Background and Inexperience

“I possess a UK passport,” she said, “and the government agents did not inquire me about my background.” Therefore, with her “fair” skin (according to the magazine), she moved among the Europeans, supported by their admiration for her deceased parent. She delivered a lecture about her father’s music at the Cape Town university and led the national orchestra in Johannesburg, programming the inspiring part of her concerto, titled: “Dedicated to my Father.” Although a accomplished player on her own, she never played as the lead performer in her work. Instead, she always led as the leader; and so the segregated ensemble played under her baton.

Avril hoped, according to her, she “might bring a transformation”. But by 1954, circumstances deteriorated. When government agents became aware of her mixed background, she was forced to leave the nation. Her citizenship didn’t protect her, the diplomatic official advised her to leave or risk imprisonment. She returned to England, embarrassed as the extent of her naivety dawned. “The lesson was a hard one,” she expressed. Adding to her embarrassment was the release in 1955 of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her sudden departure from that nation.

A Familiar Story

As I sat with these legacies, I felt a familiar story. The story of identifying as British until it’s challenged – that brings to mind Black soldiers who served for the British during the World War II and made it through but were refused rightful benefits. Along with the Windrush era,