The Black British composer and conductor Samuel Coleridge-Taylor will be honoured in a series of events in his hometown of Croydon, starting in August.
A resident of Croydon for most of his relatively short life, Coleridge-Taylor was a pioneer of classical music who wowed audiences with compositions like The Song of Hiawatha — and whose death from overwork and pneumonia, aged just 37 was mourned throughout the music world. In 1975, he became the first Black recipient of an English Heritage Blue Plaque.
To mark 150 years since Coleridge-Taylor's birth, Croydon will put on events in his honour, including:
- Croydon Gladi Gladi (16-17 August): A weekend of live music featuring street bands, community choirs and DJs — including London Mozart Players, Cable Street Rag Band, Rhythm Generation, Pegasus Opera and Bowjangles string quartet — performing in Croydon's North End and High Street. A piano will also be installed near the Coleridge-Taylor artwork on the front of Centrale, which passers-by can play.
- BRIT School Takeover at Croydon Clocktower (18 October): Students from Croydon's famous BRIT School, which has recently gifted us with the likes of RAYE and Loyle Carner, will perform a Coleridge-Taylor themed programme, inspired by material from the Croydon Archives and the archives of the Royal College of Music.
- Samuel Coleridge-Taylor at 150: London Mozart Players at Fairfield Halls (19 October): Coleridge-Taylor's Violin Concerto in G minor, Op.80 is performed at Croydon's Fairfield Halls as part of a special evening of music helmed by Croydon's resident orchestra, the London Mozart Players, alongside new commissions from Tunde Jegede and Ryan Morgan, drawing from contemporary musical styles from both Europe and Africa, as Coleridge-Taylor did.
