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This talented musician constantly felt the burden of her father’s heritage. As the daughter of the renowned Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, a leading the prominent British artists of the 1900s, Avril’s reputation was enveloped in the lingering obscurity of the past.

An Inaugural Recording

Earlier this year, I sat with these memories as I made arrangements to record the first-ever recording of Avril’s concerto for piano composed in 1936. Boasting impassioned harmonies, heartfelt tunes, and confident beats, her composition will provide music lovers deep understanding into how the composer – a wartime composer originating from the early 1900s – conceived of her existence as a artist with mixed heritage.

Past and Present

Yet about legacies. One needs patience to acclimate, to see shapes as they truly exist, to separate fact from distortion, and I was reluctant to face Avril’s past for some time.

I earnestly desired her to be a reflection of her father. Partially, she was. The pastoral English palettes of her father’s impact can be observed in many of her works, such as 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 viewed himself as both a champion of English Romanticism and also a representative of the Black diaspora.

At this point Samuel and Avril began to differ.

White America assessed the composer by the excellence of his art rather than the his ethnicity.

Family Background

While he was studying at the Royal College of Music, the composer – the son of a parent from Sierra Leone and a Caucasian parent – started to lean into his heritage. When the poet of color Paul Laurence Dunbar arrived in England in 1897, the aspiring artist was keen to meet him. He set the poet’s African Romances to music and the following year used the poet’s words for an opera, Dream Lovers. Then came the choral piece that put Samuel on the map: Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.

Based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha, the piece was an global success, particularly among the Black community who felt indirect honor as American society judged Samuel by the brilliance of his art instead of the colour of his skin.

Advocacy and Beliefs

Success did not reduce his beliefs. In 1900, he was present at the pioneering African conference in England where he met the African American intellectual the renowned Du Bois and witnessed a series of speeches, including on the subjugation of the Black community there. He was a campaigner throughout his life. He sustained relationships with trailblazers for equality like the scholar and Booker T Washington, spoke publicly on racial equality, and even talked about matters of race with the US President during an invitation to the presidential residence in the early 1900s. Regarding his compositions, reminisced Du Bois, “he established his reputation so notably as a creative artist that it cannot soon be forgotten.” He succumbed in the early 20th century, in his thirties. Yet how might Samuel have made of his daughter’s decision to be in this country in the that decade?

Issues and Stance

“Child of Celebrated Artist gives OK to apartheid system,” ran a headline in the Black American publication Jet magazine. Apartheid “appeared to me the appropriate course”, she informed Jet. When asked to explain, she qualified her remarks: she didn’t agree with this policy “fundamentally” and it “could be left to run its course, guided by benevolent residents of all races”. Were the composer more in tune to her father’s politics, or raised in Jim Crow America, she could have hesitated about the policy. But life had shielded her.

Identity and Naivety

“I possess a UK passport,” she remarked, “and the officials did not inquire me about my background.” So, with her “light” appearance (as described), she moved alongside white society, buoyed up by their praise for her deceased parent. She gave a talk about her father’s music at the University of Cape Town and conducted the national orchestra in the city, featuring the inspiring part of her concerto, subtitled: “In memory of my Father.” Even though a skilled pianist personally, she did not perform as the featured artist in her concerto. Rather, she always led as the leader; and so the orchestra of the era played under her baton.

Avril hoped, as she stated, she “could introduce a transformation”. However, by that year, the situation collapsed. Once officials became aware of her African heritage, she had to depart the country. Her citizenship offered no defense, the diplomatic official urged her to go or face arrest. She came home, embarrassed as the magnitude of her innocence was realized. “The realization was a hard one,” she stated. Compounding her embarrassment was the 1955 publication of her controversial discussion, a year after her sudden departure from the country.

A Recurring Theme

As I sat with these legacies, I perceived a known narrative. The account of identifying as British until it’s challenged – one that calls to mind Black soldiers who served for the British during the second world war and lived only to be refused rightful benefits. Including those from Windrush,