Location Change: 5 PM, March 17, Boston Screening of SCT in America now at Boston University's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Archive.

[Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) is profiled at AfriClassical.com, which features a comprehensive Works
List and a Bibliography by Dr. 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 Longfellow Chorus Portland, Maine March 12, 2014

"Mr. Hayes has an unusually good voice. The natural quality is beautiful. It is a luscious yet manly voice. Mr. Hayes sings freely and with taste, though in his youthful enthusiasm he occasionally, last evening, forced his upper tone. With patience and further study he should go far."     —Boston Herald music critic Philip Hale, reviewing the debut recital of Roland Hayes (1887–1977) at Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, November 19, 1912, as quoted  in The Crisis, Vol. 5, No. 3, January 1913. Boston has a remarkable, hidden history where it concerns Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, so much so, a Samuel Coleridge-Taylor walking tour of Boston would make a great, historic way for a musically-minded tourist to spend the day: Boston Harbor Waterfront, near the present day New England Aquarium, where, in November 1904, as a transatlantic passenger arriving from Liverpool, England, Coleridge-Taylor first set foot in America. Symphony Hall, where, during its premiere season, autumn 1900, Boston Cecilia and Boston Symphony Orchestra performed Scenes from The Song of Hiawatha, and where the Hiawatha Overture was heard in America for the first time. Harvard Musical Association, 57 Chestnut St, on Beacon Hill, an historic, private musical society where Coleridge-Taylor was celebrated and entertained on the evening of December 9, 1904, and where he left his signature in the guestbook and in a full score of Hiawatha's Wedding Feast. Jordan Hall at the New England Conservatory, where, on December 12, 1906, Coleridge-Taylor gave a recital, assisted by Harry T. Burleigh and members of the Boston Symphony String Quartet.  And where, on November 19, 1912, less than three months after Coleridge-Taylor's death, the young Roland Hayes—a former Fisk Jubilee  singer—gave his Boston debut recital, singing Onaway! Awake, beloved!, among other things. Performing with Hayes were four other African- American artists: Harry T. Burleigh, baritone; William H. Richardson, baritone; Roy W. Tibbs, pianist; and Maud Cuney-Hare, pianist. And where, on January 13, 1913, Dr. W. E. B. Du Bois gave a "Memorial Address" during the Coleridge-Taylor Memorial Concert, with musical selections by Hayes, Burleigh, Richardson, Cuney-Hare, Jacques Hoffmann, violinist, Ludwig Nast, cellist and Frederic P. White, organist. At the time of his Jordan Hall Memorial Address for Coleridge-Taylor in January 1913, Du Bois was editor of The Crisis, the monthly magazine of the newly-formed NAACP. Coleridge-Taylor, as a young, successful, high-achieving, classically-trained musician, had become a poster child for The Crisis, along with J. Rosamond Johnson, James Reese Europe and Will Marion Cook.  ... See you there! Charles Kaufmann, Artistic Director The Longfellow Chorus PO Box 5133 Portland, Maine 04101