Avril Coleridge-Taylor

Gwendolyn Avril Coleridge-Taylor (Born in South Norwood, London, on 8 March, 1903. Died 21 December, 1998) was an English pianist, conductor, and composer.The daughter of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, she wrote her first composition, "Goodbye Butterfly", at the age of twelve. Later, she won a scholarship for composition and piano at Trinity College of Music in 1915, where she was taught by Gordon Jacob and Alec Rowley. [Sadie, Julie Anne and Rhian Samuel. Eds. "The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers". Macmillan: New York, 1995.] In 1933 she made her debut as a conductor at the Royal Albert Hall. She was then the first female conductor of the H.M.S. Royal Marines and a frequent guest conductor of the BBC Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra. She was the founder and conductor of both the Coleridge-Taylor Symphony Orchestra and its accompanying musical society in the 1940’s as well as the Malcolm Sargent Symphony Orchestra. Her compositions include large-scale orchestral works, as well as songs, keyboard, and chamber music.In 1957, she wrote the Ceremonial March to celebrate Ghana’s Independence. Her other well-regarded works include a "Piano Concerto in F Minor, Sussex Landscape, The Hills, To April, In Memoriam R.A.F.", "Wyndore" (Windover) for choir and orchestra, and "Golden Wedding Ballet Suite" for orchestra. She also published under the pseudonym Peter Riley.

She dropped her first name after a divorce, thereafter going by Avril professionally. She spent her latter life in South Africa, where she lived under apartheid and couldn't work as a composer or conductor because of her one-fourth black African ancestry. [ [http://www.billgreenwell.com/lost_lives/index.php?key_id=588] ]

Notes

*cite book | last=Cohen | first=Aaron | title="International Encyclopedia of Women Composers| location=New York | publisher=Hamish Books & Music| year=1981

*cite book | last=Hixon | first=Donald | title="Women in Music: An Encyclopedic Biobibliography| location=Metuchen, NJ| publisher=Scarecrow P| year=1993

*cite book | last=Sadie | first=Julie Ann | last=Samuel | first=Rhian | title="The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers| location=New York | publisher=Macmillan| year=1995

*cite book | last=Sadie | first=Stanely | title="The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians| location=New York | publisher=Macmillan| year=2001

References

Further reading

*Coleridge-Taylor, Avril. (1979) "The Heritage of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor ." London: Dobson P.

External links

* [http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0027-4666%28195811%2999%3A1389%3C613%3ASC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-2 Coleridge-Taylor on JSTOR]