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This talented musician always bore the pressure of her family legacy. As the daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, among the best-known UK musicians of the early 20th century, the composer’s name was cloaked in the deep shadows of history.

A World Premiere

Not long ago, I sat with these legacies as I got ready to record the inaugural album of her piano concerto from 1936. With its impassioned harmonies, soulful lyricism, and bold rhythms, Avril’s work will grant music lovers deep understanding into how she – a composer during war originating from the early 1900s – imagined her world 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 separate fact from distortion, and I had been afraid to face Avril’s past for a period.

I deeply hoped her to be a reflection of her father. To some extent, that held. The pastoral English palettes of her father’s impact can be heard 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 parent’s works to understand how he heard himself as not just a standard-bearer of English Romanticism and also a representative of the African heritage.

At this point father and daughter appeared to part ways.

The United States judged Samuel by the excellence of his music instead of the his ethnicity.

Samuel’s African Roots

During his studies at the Royal College of Music, Samuel – the child of a Sierra Leonean father and a British mother – turned toward his African roots. Once the African American poet the renowned Dunbar visited the UK in that era, the 21-year-old composer eagerly sought him out. He set Dunbar’s African Romances as a composition and the next year adapted his verses for an opera, Dream Lovers. Subsequently arrived the choral work that put Samuel on the map: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from this American writer’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an global success, particularly among African Americans who felt shared pride as the majority assessed his work by the quality of his art as opposed to the his background.

Principles and Actions

Success did not reduce Samuel’s politics. At the turn of the century, he attended the First Pan African Conference in the UK where he met the Black American thinker WEB Du Bois and saw a variety of discussions, such as the oppression of the Black community there. He was a campaigner until the end. He maintained ties with pioneers of civil rights like Du Bois and this leader, spoke publicly on equality for all, and even engaged in dialogue on issues of racism with the US President on a trip to the presidential residence in 1904. As for his music, reminisced Du Bois, “he made his mark so high as a creative artist that it will long be remembered.” He passed away in that year, at 37 years old. Yet how might the composer have made of his child’s choice to be in this country in the 1950s?

Conflict and Policy

“Daughter of Famous Composer shows support to South African policy,” ran a headline in the African American magazine Jet magazine. Apartheid “seems to me the right policy”, the composer stated Jet. When asked to explain, she backtracked: she didn’t agree with this policy “fundamentally” and it “should be allowed to resolve itself, directed by good-intentioned residents of diverse ethnicities”. Had Avril been more aligned to her father’s politics, or from the US under segregation, she might have thought twice about this system. But life had protected her.

Background and Inexperience

“I hold a English document,” she said, “and the authorities failed to question me about my background.” Thus, with her “light” complexion (according to the magazine), she moved within European circles, supported by their praise for her renowned family member. She delivered a lecture about her parent’s compositions at the University of Cape Town and directed the broadcasting ensemble in that location, including the inspiring part of her concerto, titled: “Dedicated to my Father.” Although a confident pianist herself, she did not perform as the lead performer in her work. Instead, she always led as the conductor; and so the segregated ensemble played under her baton.

The composer aspired, as she stated, she “may foster a change”. But by 1954, circumstances deteriorated. Once officials discovered her African heritage, she could no longer stay the nation. Her citizenship didn’t protect her, the UK representative urged her to go or be jailed. She came home, embarrassed as the scale of her inexperience became clear. “The lesson was a difficult one,” she lamented. Adding to her humiliation was the printing that year of her unfortunate magazine feature, a year after her sudden departure from that nation.

A Recurring Theme

Upon contemplating with these legacies, I perceived a recurring theme. The account of holding UK citizenship until it’s revoked – that brings to mind African-descended soldiers who fought on behalf of the UK throughout the World War II and survived only to be not given their earned rewards. Along with the Windrush era,