Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: a musical life by Jeffrey Green Dr Dominique-Rene de Lerma writes: Over more than three decades, English historian Jeffrey Green has presented a series of discoveries on Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912), an English composer who did not follow his contemporaries into British folk music but instead responded to a yearning for Africa, the homeland of … Continue reading »

We are delighted that the Black Cultural Archives have invited the Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation to collaborate with them on shared information and the BCA archiving materials concerning Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. This is exactly the sort of joint working which SCTF seeks in order to take forward our objective of ‘bringing people together through music’. Read more about BCA’s new Black heritage centre. Continue reading »

Daniel Labonne (previously Croydon SC-T Society artistic director) attended the premiere by Surrey Opera of Thelma at Croydon’s Fairfield Halls, and sent us this exclusive review. Continue reading »

Read Robert Eichert’s review of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s opera Thelma by Surrey Opera. Their recent performance was a world premiere of a work that has lain hidden away until work by Catherine Carr rediscovered it and brought it to the attention of the world at large. We’ve gathered together a range of other on-line reviews here as well. Continue reading »

Andrew Green writes: Can you help?   In this, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s centenary legacy year (2012), I’ll be fulfilling a long-held ambition to make a radio programme focusing on the famous Albert Hall ‘Hiawatha’ performances of the 1920s and 30s – the high-point in Coleridge-Taylor’s recognition as a composer of real worth. My task now is to find as many … Continue reading »

Jonathan Butcher writes: Up until 1900 Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (born in 1875) had had little to do with composing for the theatre. His main body of work was choral and orchestral and, of course, his most famous opus, and the one that catapulted him to fame, was his major oratorio, Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast. His involvement with the theatre, though Herbert Beerbohm Tree, with all its colourful characters, magic and intrigue, may well have been the very spark Coleridge-Taylor needed to spur him on to write his only full length opera. Continue reading »

Here is the definitive list of SCT events for 2012!  We have established an Events calendar (or diary) as a special page on this website, on which we intend to list every event we know about, whether in the UK or elsewhere.  You may like to take a look here. 2012 marks one hundred years … Continue reading »

Ten years ago today (7 November 2001) was the first performance in living memory of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Piano Quintet, op.1.  The work was part of a lunchtime recital programme by players from the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, from a score discovered and prepared from the original by Martin Anthony (‘Tony’) Burrage, an RLPO violonist, and director of … Continue reading »

The Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Foundation is inviting articles for publication on this website from historians, scholars and other commentators about the impact of SCT’s life and work in the United States, from the time of his visits until the present. We are aware that this is an area of increasing interest, as more information has emerged about … Continue reading »

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s sole opera, Thelma (Op.72), was composed in 1907-09, but only in the past few years has it been given any serious consideration. Here Dr Catherine Carr recounts how she came to learn of the opera. She also shares some insights into the research she undertook to bring Thelma to life, and tells us about some of her many fascinating discoveries concerning this centrally important and hitherto neglected work…. Continue reading »

Richard Gordon-Smith writes: My father David Gordon-Smith* was born in 1915.  In the very class-conscious (by today’s standards) 1920s and ’30s my father’s parents would have been considered ‘lower middle class’.  Their cultural aspirations included occasional theatre and concert attendance, musical evenings in their home for friends, participation in amateur operatic performances and the acquisition of … Continue reading »