Broadway World.com: "Decca And Chineke! Orchestra Announce First Album In New Partnership, 'Coleridge-Taylor', Out September 30"

The album features music by the celebrated African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with an appearance by award-winning U.S. violinist Elena Urioste.

Broadway World

by A.A. Cristi Aug. 2, 2022 

On September 30, 2022, the Chineke! Orchestra will release a new album, Coleridge-Taylor. The album features music by the celebrated African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with an appearance by award-winning U.S. violinist Elena Urioste, plus a world premiere recording of a work by Coleridge-Taylor's daughter Avril Coleridge-Taylor.

Coleridge-Taylor will be the first release on Chineke! Records, the newly created partnership between Decca and the Chineke! Orchestra, Europe's first professional majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra.

The release commemorates the 110th anniversary of the composer's death (September 1st, 1912). The album includes the famous Violin Concerto in G minor which was originally written for Minnie "Maud" Powell, a champion of music by African-American and female composers, first performed days after the composer's death. Another highlight is the 1898 African Suite, based on the ground-breaking poetry of the African-American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, a major influence on Coleridge-Taylor taking inspiration from the ideas of Pan-Africanism. 

Executive Producer of Chineke! Records is Chi-chi Nwanoku CBE, Founder, Artistic, and Executive Director of the Chineke! Foundation, which supports, inspires, and encourages Black and ethnically diverse classical musicians working in the U.K. and Europe, by providing a platform on which to excel.

Chi-chi Nwanoku CBE says, "Chineke!'s debut concert began with Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and it could not be more fitting that we launch our first Chineke! Records album in partnership with Decca with music by the same composer whose music clearly comes straight from the heart. Included is a masterpiece by his daughter Avril. Their glorious music has been silent for too long; some of it never heard, and we promise an album that you will return to over and over again."

Tom Lewis and Laura Monks, Co-Presidents of Decca Label Group, say, "Chi-chi's vision, energy and ambition are extraordinary. She is a trailblazer with an important mission and, together with Chineke!, she has recorded compositions by some of the world's most important yet under-represented classical composers. We are committed to spreading the incredible music, talent and message of Chineke! around the world."

Coleridge-Taylor Tracklist

CD1

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor - Othello Orchestral Suite, Op. 79

Avril Coleridge-Taylor - Sussex Landscape, Op. 27

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor - African Suite, Op. 35

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor - Ballade in A minor, Op. 33

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor - Petite Suite de Concert, Op. 7