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The composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor constantly experienced the burden of her father’s heritage. As the daughter of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the most famous British composers of the early 20th century, Avril’s name was shrouded in the deep shadows of bygone eras.

An Inaugural Recording

Earlier this year, I reflected on these shadows as I made arrangements to produce the first-ever recording of her concerto for piano composed in 1936. Boasting intense musical themes, soulful lyricism, and valiant rhythms, Avril’s work will provide audiences valuable perspective into how the composer – a wartime composer born in 1903 – envisioned her reality as a artist with mixed heritage.

Past and Present

But here’s the thing about the past. It requires time to adjust, to recognize outlines as they actually appear, to tell reality from misinterpretation, and I felt hesitant to face her history for a period.

I deeply hoped the composer to be following in her father’s footsteps. To some extent, this was true. The rustic British sounds of Samuel’s influence can be observed in many of her works, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). But you only have to look at the titles of her parent’s works to understand how he viewed himself as both a flag bearer of UK romantic tradition and also a voice of the African heritage.

This was where parent and child appeared to part ways.

The United States evaluated Samuel by the brilliance of his compositions rather than the colour of his skin.

Samuel’s African Roots

While he was studying at the renowned institution, her father – the child of a Sierra Leonean father and a white English mother – began embracing his heritage. Once the poet of color the renowned Dunbar came to London in 1897, the aspiring artist was keen to meet him. He composed the poet’s African Romances into music and the subsequent year incorporated his poetry for a musical work, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral piece that established his reputation: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on the poet Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, this composition was an global success, particularly among African Americans who felt vicarious pride as American society judged Samuel by the quality of his compositions as opposed to the colour of his skin.

Activism and Politics

Success did not reduce his beliefs. In 1900, he participated in the pioneering African conference in London where he encountered the prominent scholar WEB Du Bois and saw a series of speeches, such as the mistreatment of the Black community there. He was an activist throughout his life. He maintained ties with early civil rights leaders including this intellectual and Booker T Washington, gave addresses on equality for all, and even engaged in dialogue on racial problems with President Theodore Roosevelt while visiting to the White House in that year. As for his music, reminisced Du Bois, “he established his reputation so prominently as a composer that it will long be remembered.” He died in 1912, at 37 years old. However, how would Samuel have reacted to his daughter’s decision to travel to South Africa in the 1950s?

Conflict and Policy

“Offspring of Renowned Musician expresses approval to S African Bias,” appeared as a heading in the African American magazine Jet magazine. This policy “appeared to me the appropriate course”, she informed Jet. Upon further questioning, she qualified her remarks: she did not support with this policy “fundamentally” and it “should be allowed to resolve itself, directed by benevolent people of all races”. If Avril had been more in tune to her parent’s beliefs, or from segregated America, she may have reconsidered about this system. However, existence had sheltered her.

Background and Inexperience

“I have a English document,” she said, “and the officials never asked me about my background.” So, with her “porcelain-white” appearance (as Jet put it), she traveled alongside white society, lifted by their admiration for her renowned family member. She presented about her father’s music at the University of Cape Town and directed the national orchestra in Johannesburg, programming the bold final section of her Piano Concerto, named: “In memory of my Father.” Although a accomplished player herself, she never played as the soloist in her work. On the contrary, she always led as the conductor; and so the orchestra of the era performed under her direction.

Avril hoped, in her own words, she “might bring a change”. But by 1954, things fell apart. After authorities became aware of her mixed background, she could no longer stay the nation. Her British passport didn’t protect her, the British high commissioner urged her to go or risk imprisonment. She came home, embarrassed as the extent of her inexperience dawned. “The realization was a painful one,” she stated. Increasing her humiliation was the 1955 publication of her ill-fated Jet interview, a year after her unceremonious exit from the country.

A Recurring Theme

As I sat with these shadows, I felt a known narrative. The narrative of holding UK citizenship until it’s challenged – which recalls troops of color who defended the UK throughout the World War II and survived only to be refused rightful benefits. And the Windrush generation,