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The composer Avril Coleridge-Taylor always experienced the pressure of her parent’s reputation. As the offspring of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the most famous English musicians of the early 20th century, her reputation was cloaked in the deep shadows of bygone eras.

A World Premiere

In recent months, I sat with these legacies as I prepared to record the inaugural album of Avril’s 1936 piano concerto. Featuring impassioned harmonies, soulful lyricism, and valiant rhythms, her composition will offer new listeners fascinating insight into how the composer – an artist in conflict originating from the early 1900s – imagined her world as a female composer of color.

Shadows and Truth

Yet about shadows. One needs patience to adjust, to see shapes as they truly exist, to separate fact from misinterpretation, and I was reluctant to address Avril’s past for a period.

I had so wanted the composer to be a reflection of her father. Partially, she was. The idyllic English tones of parental inspiration can be heard 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 see how he heard himself as not just a champion of British Romantic style but a voice of the African heritage.

This was where father and daughter appeared to part ways.

White America evaluated Samuel by the brilliance of his compositions rather than the his racial background.

Samuel’s African Roots

While he was studying at the renowned institution, Samuel – the son of a African father and a Caucasian parent – turned toward his background. At the time the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar came to London in 1897, the young musician was keen to meet him. He set this literary work as a composition and the subsequent 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.

Based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, the piece was an worldwide sensation, especially with African Americans who felt vicarious pride as white America evaluated the composer by the brilliance of his compositions instead of the his race.

Activism and Politics

Recognition did not reduce his beliefs. At the turn of the century, he participated in the pioneering African conference in London where he made the acquaintance of the prominent scholar the renowned Du Bois and saw a variety of discussions, including on the mistreatment of African people in South Africa. He was a campaigner until the end. He sustained relationships with trailblazers for equality including the scholar and this leader, spoke publicly on racial equality, and even discussed racial problems with the US President during an invitation to the White House in 1904. Regarding his compositions, the scholar reflected, “he wrote his name so prominently as a creative artist that it cannot soon be forgotten.” He passed away in that year, at 37 years old. But what would her father have reacted to his child’s choice to be in the African nation in the 1950s?

Issues and Stance

“Daughter of Famous Composer expresses approval to South African policy,” appeared as a heading in the community journal Jet magazine. This policy “struck me as the right policy”, Avril told Jet. When asked to explain, she backtracked: she did not support with this policy “fundamentally” and it “could be left to resolve itself, directed by benevolent South Africans of all races”. Had Avril been more in tune to her family’s principles, or from the US under segregation, she could have hesitated about this system. But life had shielded her.

Background and Inexperience

“I have a UK passport,” she remarked, “and the government agents failed to question me about my background.” So, with her “porcelain-white” appearance (as described), she floated among the Europeans, supported by their praise for her late father. She gave a talk about her family’s work at the educational institution and directed the South African Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in Johannesburg, programming the heroic third movement of her Piano Concerto, titled: “In remembrance of my Father.” While a confident pianist personally, she did not perform as the featured artist in her concerto. Rather, she always led as the maestro; and so the apartheid orchestra followed her lead.

Avril hoped, according to her, she “could introduce a shift”. However, by that year, the situation collapsed. After authorities learned of her mixed background, she could no longer stay the country. Her UK document offered no defense, the diplomatic official recommended her departure or face arrest. She came home, embarrassed as the magnitude of her inexperience was realized. “This experience was a hard one,” she expressed. Adding to her disgrace 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 known narrative. The narrative of holding UK citizenship until it’s revoked – one that calls to mind troops of color who fought on behalf of the English in the World War II and survived only to be denied their due compensation. Including those from Windrush,