The World of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

Composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was a household name in the early twentieth century thanks to popularity of his biggest hit Hiawatha. Every summer for some 30 years, thousands of people descended on the Royal Albert Hall for ‘Hiawatha Season’; a dedicated two-week stint of Coleridge-Taylor’s immense choral work, sung by the Royal Choral Society.

Born in Holborn and raised in Croydon, Coleridge-Taylor was regarded, by Elgar no less, as the most talented composer in Britain. So why don’t we hear more about him today? In its 150th year, the Royal Choral Society joined the London Mozart Players and the Croydon Philharmonic Choir to celebrate all things Coleridge-Taylor; the concert included an exploration of his Croydon connections, his experience as a black composer in Edwardian London and a delve into the context of the original Hiawatha text with its depiction of native American culture.

In this concert, which included Coleridge-Taylor’s Violin Concerto, we reimagined Hiawatha for a modern audience, surrounding it in music from Coleridge-Taylor’s contemporaries – Elgar’s The Spirit of the Lord and Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.