University of Houston
Moores School of Music
Moores School of Music
Born in London in 1875 to
an African father and an English mother, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor showed
musical talent at an early age. He studied violin and composition
(under Charles Villiers Stanford) at the Royal College of Music, where
his classmates included Gustav Holst and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The
spectacular success of his cantata, Hiawatha's Wedding Feast (1898), brought him prominence in British musical circles. Two more cantatas, The Death of Minnehaha and Hiawatha's Departure, cemented his fame, matched in his time in England only by Elgar.
A popular composer in England, Coleridge-Taylor soon became a
cultural hero in the African-American community. Coleridge-Taylor
societies were organized to perform his music, and he visited the United
States three times, conducting the New York Philharmonic on the last
trip (1910). Two schools in the US are named for him, in Baltimore, MD
and Louisville, KY.
Coleridge-Taylor's music remained popular for a quarter-century after his untimely death at age 37—the Hiawatha
trilogy, for example, was performed annually between the World Wars. He
slipped into obscurity by the middle of the century, but has been
rediscovered in recent years; his Violin Concerto, for example, has been
recorded three times since 1994.
On the centennial of his death, the University of Houston Moores
School of Music is pleased to celebrate Coleridge-Taylor's life and
music in two concerts, along with scholarly discussions of his life,
work, and influence.
[Samuel
Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912)
is profiled at AfriClassical.com,
which features a comprehensive Works List and a Bibliography by Prof.
Dominique-René de Lerma, www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com. We are collaborating with the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation of the U.K., www.SCTF.org.uk]
the last time i visited Houston, i noticed that University of Houston and Texas Southern are a short distant apart. Texas Southern is also interested in performing/preserving music by composers of African descent but with very limited resources. Compliments to University of Houston.
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