Friday, July 9, 2010

The Best of Sutton: 'Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Hiawatha - 14 July 2010'


[African Heritage Symphonic Series, Vol. 1; Danse Nègre From African Suite (6:14); Petite Suite de Concert (13:36); Chicago Sinfonietta; Paul Freeman, Conductor; Cedille 90000 055 (2000)]

“The Best of Sutton
11.30 am - 12.30 pm
Mallinson Room
Wallington Library
Shotfield, Wallington, SM6 0HY

“Music and Poetry in the Library
This is a combination of music and poetry from Coleridge-Taylor's Hiawatha's Wedding Feast and Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha presented by the Wallington Poetry Circle. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor died in 1912 and is buried in Bandon Hill Cemetery, in Wallington. Free refreshments are provided by the Friends of Wallington Library. This is a free event with no booking required.”

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) was an Afro-British composer, conductor and professor who is profiled at AfriClassical.com. He was a collaborator of the African American poet and author Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and was an early advocate of Pan-Africanism.
Coleridge-Taylor had two major successes in 1898, the year he turned 23, Ballade in A Minor and his musical Hiawatha's Wedding Feast, for which he is best known. The work is a setting of verses from Song of Hiawatha by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He conducted its premier to great acclaim. The work was staged hundreds of times in the United Kingdom alone during the next 15 years.

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