Samuel Coleridgetaylor

Vocation

Notable

Traits

Family

British composer, the son of an English white mother and African black father. He showed exceptional talent as a 5-year-old child playing his violin and singing in the choir. His father, apparently because of racial prejudice, had difficulty becoming a physician, and, when Samuel was a boy, his father deserted him and his mother to return to his native West Africa. In college, Samuel studied music and composition. In 1896 he became conductor of an amateur orchestra in Croydon and began teaching, conducting, and performing recitals and at music festivals. He continued to compose, and in 1898, presented "Ballade in A Minor" at the Gloucester Festival to positive reviews. His best known piece was the Longfellow trilogy for solo voices, chorus and orchestra, with the first in the series being "Hiawatha's Wedding Feast" in 1898, the second "The Death of Minnehaha (1899) and finally, "Hiawatha's Departure" in 1900. He toured in the United States in 1904, 1906 and 1910 and was well-received. He was married with two children, and he died on September 1, 1912 in Croydon. Link to Wikipedia biography