John Malveaux: "I was privileged to attend a private screening by Charles Kaufmann, producer of 'Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and His Music in America, 1900-1912'"

[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]

John Malveaux of www.MusicUNTOLD.com writes:

I was privileged to attend a private screening by Charles Kaufmann, producer of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and His Music in America, 1900-1912 on October 9, 2013. Charles founded The Longfellow Chorus in 2007 in order to commemorate the bicentennial of the birth of the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow through performance of musical settings of his poetry.

The two hour documentary is an unlikely story: How a late Victorian, Afro-English classical music composer turned Hiawatha -- Longfellow's mid 19th-century epic poem about late 16th-century Native Americans -- into a rallying cry for African-Americans during the rise of Jim Crow in early 20th-century America.

John Malveaux

Comment by email:

The documentary is thoroughly researched and presented with accuracy and dignity. I found one significant omission - Samuel Coleridge Taylor was a guest of President Roosevelt at the White House.  John  [John Malveaux]