Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born on August 15, 1875 to a white English mother and black African father (Dr Daniel Peter Hughes Taylor) in Holborn, London his father, Daniel Hughes Taylor, was a native of Sierra Leone. His father was not a part of Coleridge-Taylor's life, returning to Sierra Leone either before Samuel's birth or while he was a very young boy. Samuel was raised by his mother, Alice Taylor.

In 1880 the Croydon music teacher Joseph Beck meets 5 year old Coleridge-Taylor and starts to give him violin lessons. Samuel Coleridge took a keen interest in music and at the age of 15 applied to enter the Royal College of Music. Sir George Grove, the principal of the Royal College of Music, originally said no as he feared other students might complain about having to study with a black man. He would later decide against it admitting Coleridge-Taylor to the Royal College of Music.

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor switches from violin as his first subject to composition under Charles Villiers Stanford. While studying with Stanford, Coleridge-Taylor competed for one of the nine open scholarships at the college and was awarded the fellowship in composition in 1893.

Coleridge would be taught by Sir Frederick Bridge, Hubert Parry, Walter Parratt and Charles Wood. In 1896 Coleridge-Taylor publishes his first piece, Te Deum. Some of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's greatest works date from these early years. Coleridge-Taylor receives the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival commission; (Ballade in A minor). The success of the piece was repeated at its London premiere at the Crystal Palace on November 4th.

His most famous work is perhaps the trilogy based upon the poems of the Cambridge, Massachusetts native, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Hiawatha's Wedding Feast in 1898 is the first of these three works and the one that is often seen as Coleridge-Taylor's crowning achievement. Weeks later, Hiawatha's (Wedding Feast) was premiered at the Royal College of Music with Stanford conducting. This performance made Samuel Coleridge-Taylor an international superstar over night. He was never to earn any royalty payments however, as he had sold the rights to Novello outright for 15 guineas. The Royal Choral Society commission a sequel to Hiawatha, (The Death of Minnehaha). It is premiered at the North Staffordshire Music Festival in Hanley, and then taken to the Royal Albert Hall and the Duchess of Sutherland.

The impact of his work and his person is further witnessed by his association with both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois. An introduction to Coleridge-Taylor's Twenty-four Negro Melodies was written by Booker T. Washington. His admiration and respect for Coleridge-Taylor's work is a reflection of the pride and admiration felt by many African-Americans. In the United States Coleridge-Taylor's music and work inspired the establishment of the Coleridge-Taylor Choral Society. This was a