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Avril Coleridge-Taylor constantly felt the burden of her parent’s heritage. As the offspring of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the prominent UK composers of the early 20th century, the composer’s identity was shrouded in the lingering obscurity of history.

A World Premiere

In recent months, I reflected on these legacies as I prepared to make the first-ever recording of her concerto for piano composed in 1936. Featuring emotional harmonies, heartfelt tunes, and valiant rhythms, her composition will grant audiences valuable perspective into how this artist – a wartime composer originating from the early 1900s – conceived of her existence as a woman of colour.

Shadows and Truth

But here’s the thing about shadows. It requires time to acclimate, to recognize outlines as they actually appear, to tell reality from distortion, and I was reluctant to face the composer’s background for a period.

I earnestly desired the composer to be a reflection of her father. To some extent, this was true. The pastoral English palettes of Samuel’s influence can be observed in many of her works, for example From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). However, one need only look at the names of her father’s compositions to realize how he viewed himself as not just a standard-bearer of British Romantic style and also a advocate of the African diaspora.

This was where father and daughter began to differ.

American society assessed the composer by the excellence of his music rather than the colour of his skin.

Samuel’s African Roots

During his studies at the Royal College of Music, the composer – the child of a African father and a British mother – started to lean into his heritage. Once the African American poet the renowned Dunbar came to London in that era, the young musician was keen to meet him. He set the poet’s African Romances as a composition and the next year used the poet’s words for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral piece that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from the poet Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an international hit, notably for the Black community who felt shared pride as the majority evaluated the composer by the brilliance of his art rather than the his race.

Principles and Actions

Fame did not reduce his beliefs. At the turn of the century, he was present at the pioneering African conference in England where he encountered the prominent scholar WEB Du Bois and witnessed a range of talks, including on the oppression of the Black community there. He was an activist to his final days. He kept connections with trailblazers for equality like the scholar and the educator Washington, spoke publicly on ending discrimination, and even talked about racial problems with the US President on a trip to the White House in that year. In terms of his art, Du Bois recalled, “he established his reputation so high as a creative artist that it will endure.” He died in the early 20th century, at 37 years old. But what would her father have reacted to his offspring’s move to travel to South Africa in the 1950s?

Issues and Stance

“Child of Celebrated Artist gives OK to South African policy,” declared a title in the community journal Jet magazine. Apartheid “seems to me the right policy”, she informed Jet. When asked to explain, she qualified her remarks: she didn’t agree with this policy “as a concept” and it “could be left to resolve itself, directed by well-meaning residents of every background”. If Avril had been more aligned to her parent’s beliefs, or from the US under segregation, she might have thought twice about the policy. However, existence had sheltered her.

Background and Inexperience

“I have a British passport,” she said, “and the government agents did not inquire me about my background.” Therefore, with her “light” skin (as described), she traveled alongside white society, buoyed up by their admiration for her late father. She gave a talk about her family’s work at the educational institution and conducted the national orchestra in the city, featuring the heroic third movement of her composition, named: “In memory of my Father.” While a confident pianist herself, she avoided playing as the featured artist in her concerto. Rather, she consistently conducted as the leader; and so the orchestra of the era performed under her direction.

Avril hoped, as she stated, she “could introduce a transformation”. But by 1954, the situation collapsed. When government agents learned of her African heritage, she had to depart the nation. Her UK document failed to safeguard her, the UK representative urged her to go or be jailed. She came home, deeply ashamed as the magnitude of her naivety dawned. “The lesson was a painful one,” she lamented. Increasing her humiliation was the release in 1955 of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her forced leaving from that nation.

A Familiar Story

Upon contemplating with these shadows, I perceived a recurring theme. The story of being British until it’s revoked – that brings to mind troops of color who served for the British in the global conflict and lived only to be denied their due compensation. Along with the Windrush era,