Avril Coleridge-Taylor

Gwendolyn Avril Coleridge-Taylor (8 March 1903 – 21 December 1998) was an English pianist, conductor, and composer.

Biography

She was born in South Norwood, London, 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.

In 1933, she made her debut as a conductor at the Royal Albert Hall. She was then the first female conductor of 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 1940s 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 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. Originally she was supportive of racial segregation, passing for white. However subsequently she could not work as a composer or conductor because of her one-quarter black African ancestry.

She also wrote under the pseudonym Peter Riley.

Works with opus number

Chamber music

• Idylle for flute and piano, Op. 21
• Impromptu for flute and piano, Op. 33
• A Lament for flute and piano, Op. 31

Keyboard music

• Impromptu, Op. 9
• Rhapsody for piano, Op. 174

Orchestral music

• Sussex Landscape, Op. 27

Songs

• Goodbye Butterfly, Op. 1
• Mister Sun, Op. 2
• Silver Stars, Op. 3
• Who Knows?, Op. 4
• April, Op. 5
• The Dreaming Water Lily, Op. 6
• The Rustling Grass, Op. 7
• The Entranced Hour, Op. 8
• Nightfall, Op. 43
• Apple Blossom, Op. 44
• Sleeping and Waking, Op. 45

• Avril Coleridge-Taylor, The Heritage of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, London: Dobson, 1979, pp. 154-6.