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This talented musician constantly bore the pressure of her father’s heritage. As the daughter of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, one of the prominent UK artists of the turn of the 20th century, her identity was cloaked in the long shadows of history.

An Inaugural Recording

Earlier this year, I reflected on these shadows as I got ready to produce the first-ever recording of Avril’s piano concerto from 1936. Boasting intense musical themes, soulful lyricism, and confident beats, this piece will provide new listeners fascinating insight into how she – a wartime composer born in 1903 – envisioned her world as a female composer of color.

Past and Present

But here’s the thing about legacies. It can take a while to adjust, to perceive forms as they truly exist, to tell reality from misinterpretation, and I felt hesitant to address her history for some time.

I deeply hoped Avril to be her father’s daughter. Partially, this was true. The idyllic English tones of her father’s impact can be observed in numerous compositions, including From the Hills (1934) and Sussex Landscape (1940). Yet it suffices to examine the titles of her family’s music to understand how he heard himself as both a champion of English Romanticism as well as a advocate of the African diaspora.

This was where father and daughter seemed to diverge.

American society evaluated Samuel by the brilliance of his music rather than the his racial background.

Family Background

During his studies at the renowned institution, Samuel – the offspring of a parent from Sierra Leone and a British mother – turned toward his background. At the time the Black American writer Paul Laurence Dunbar arrived in England in the late 19th century, the young musician was keen to meet him. He set the poet’s African Romances as a composition and the following year adapted his verses for a stage piece, Dream Lovers. Subsequently arrived the choral work that made him famous: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Drawing from the poet Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, Samuel’s Hiawatha was an global success, notably for Black Americans who felt vicarious pride as white America judged Samuel by the quality of his music instead of the his background.

Principles and Actions

Success did not temper his beliefs. At the turn of the century, he was present at the First Pan African Conference in the UK where he met the Black American thinker WEB Du Bois and observed a range of talks, such as the subjugation of the Black community there. He was an activist to his final days. He kept connections with early civil rights leaders such as the scholar and this leader, delivered his own speeches on equality for all, and even talked about matters of race with President Theodore Roosevelt while visiting to the US capital in that year. Regarding his compositions, Du Bois recalled, “he wrote his name so notably as a musician that it cannot soon be forgotten.” He passed away in the early 20th century, at 37 years old. But what would Samuel have reacted to his child’s choice to be in this country in the mid-20th century?

Conflict and Policy

“Offspring of Renowned Musician expresses approval to South African policy,” appeared as a heading in the community journal Jet magazine. The system “struck me as the right policy”, Avril told Jet. Upon further questioning, she revised her statement: she did not support with this policy “as a concept” and it “ought to be permitted to run its course, overseen by benevolent residents of diverse ethnicities”. If Avril had been more aligned to her family’s principles, or raised in Jim Crow America, she could have hesitated about apartheid. But life had shielded her.

Identity and Naivety

“I possess a English document,” she remarked, “and the authorities did not inquire me about my background.” Therefore, with her “porcelain-white” appearance (as described), she floated among the Europeans, buoyed up by their admiration for her renowned family member. She gave a talk about her parent’s compositions at the educational institution and directed the broadcasting ensemble in the city, programming the inspiring part of her composition, subtitled: “In remembrance of my Father.” Although a skilled pianist personally, she did not perform as the soloist in her work. Rather, she invariably directed as the leader; and so the segregated ensemble played under her baton.

The composer aspired, as she stated, she “may foster a shift”. However, by that year, circumstances deteriorated. After authorities discovered her Black ancestry, she could no longer stay the country. Her citizenship offered no defense, the UK representative recommended her departure or be jailed. She came home, deeply ashamed as the scale of her innocence was realized. “The lesson was a painful one,” she lamented. Compounding her humiliation was the 1955 publication of her controversial discussion, a year after her forced leaving from the country.

A Familiar Story

As I sat with these legacies, I felt a known narrative. The story of identifying as British until it’s revoked – one that calls to mind troops of color who fought on behalf of the English during the global conflict and lived only to be not given their earned rewards. And the Windrush generation,