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Avril Coleridge-Taylor continually bore the burden of her father’s legacy. As the daughter of the celebrated composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the most famous British composers of the turn of the 20th century, Avril’s reputation was cloaked in the long shadows of the past.

A World Premiere

Not long ago, I sat with these legacies as I got ready to produce the first-ever recording of Avril’s 1936 piano concerto. Boasting intense musical themes, expressive melodies, and bold rhythms, her composition will grant new listeners fascinating insight into how this artist – a wartime composer born in 1903 – conceived of her reality as a artist with mixed heritage.

Legacy and Reality

But here’s the thing about legacies. It requires time to acclimate, to recognize outlines as they truly exist, to tell reality from distortion, and I was reluctant to address the composer’s background for a while.

I had so wanted Avril to be a reflection of her father. Partially, that held. The idyllic English tones of her father’s impact can be observed in many of her works, such as From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to review the titles of her father’s compositions to see how he identified as not just a champion of English Romanticism but a advocate of the African diaspora.

At this point Samuel and Avril seemed to diverge.

The United States judged Samuel by the mastery of his compositions rather than the his racial background.

Family Background

During his studies 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 poet of color this literary figure came to London in 1897, the aspiring artist actively pursued him. He set this literary work as a composition and the next year adapted his verses for an opera, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral composition that put Samuel on the map: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an worldwide sensation, especially with Black Americans who felt vicarious pride as American society evaluated the composer by the brilliance of his compositions as opposed to the his race.

Advocacy and Beliefs

Recognition failed to diminish Samuel’s politics. At the turn of the century, he was present at the First Pan African Conference in London where he encountered the African American intellectual WEB Du Bois and observed a series of speeches, such as the oppression of the Black community there. He was an activist until the end. He kept connections with early civil rights leaders such as Du Bois and the educator Washington, spoke publicly on equality for all, and even engaged in dialogue on matters of race with the US President during an invitation to the presidential residence in that year. Regarding his compositions, the scholar reflected, “he wrote his name so notably as a composer that it cannot soon be forgotten.” He died in 1912, in his thirties. Yet how might her father have reacted to his daughter’s decision to be in South Africa in the that decade?

Controversy and Apartheid

“Offspring of Renowned Musician shows support to apartheid system,” ran a headline in the Black American publication Jet magazine. Apartheid “seems to me the correct approach”, the composer stated Jet. When pushed to clarify, she qualified her remarks: she was not in favor with this policy “as a concept” and it “could be left to run its course, guided by benevolent South Africans of every background”. Were the composer more aligned to her father’s politics, or from segregated America, she could have hesitated about the policy. But life had sheltered her.

Background and Inexperience

“I possess a UK passport,” she remarked, “and the government agents never asked me about my background.” Therefore, with her “fair” complexion (according to the magazine), she traveled among the Europeans, lifted by their acclaim for her deceased parent. She gave a talk about her parent’s compositions at the University of Cape Town and led the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in the city, featuring the heroic third movement of her Piano Concerto, subtitled: “In remembrance of my Father.” Even though a accomplished player personally, she avoided playing as the lead performer in her piece. Rather, she invariably directed as the conductor; and so the segregated ensemble performed under her direction.

The composer aspired, as she stated, she “might bring a change”. Yet in the mid-1950s, the situation collapsed. Once officials discovered her mixed background, she had to depart the land. Her British passport failed to safeguard her, the British high commissioner advised her to leave or face arrest. She came home, embarrassed as the scale of her naivety was realized. “This experience was a difficult one,” she stated. Adding to her embarrassment was the release in 1955 of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her unceremonious exit from South Africa.

A Familiar Story

As I sat with these shadows, I sensed a familiar story. The narrative of holding UK citizenship until it’s challenged – that brings to mind troops of color who served for the British in the World War II and survived only to be refused rightful benefits. And the Windrush generation,