What is Samuel Coleridge-Taylor?
{{dablink|Samuel Coleridge-Taylor should not be confused with the poet [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]].}} [[Image:Samuel Coleridge-Taylor.jpg|thumb|Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in 1905]] '''Samuel Coleridge-Taylor''' (born [[London]], 15 August 1875; died [[Croydon]], 1 September 1912) was an [[United Kingdom|English]] composer. Coleridge-Taylor died in [[Holborn]], [[London]]. His black father was a [[Medical doctor|doctor]] from [[Sierra Leone]], his mother was [[England|English]]. His parents were not married. The father went back to Africa by February 1875. He had the job of [[coroner]] for the [[British Empire]] in the [[Gambia]] in the late 1890s. He did not know he had a son. ==Life== Coleridge-Taylor was brought up in [[Croydon]] . He studied the [[violin]] at the [[Royal College of Music]] and [[Composition (music)|composition]] with [[Charles Villiers Stanford]]. In 1899, he married Jessie Walmisley who had been a student with him at the RCM. Her parents did not want her to be married to someone of mixed race. The couple had a son, Hiawatha (1900-1980) and a daughter, Avril, born Gwendolyn (1903-1998). Soon Coleridge-Taylor became known as a composer. [[Edward Elgar]] helped him get one of his pieces performed at the [[Three Choirs Festival]]. Two months later [[Charles Villiers Stanford|Stanford]] conducted the [[cantata]] ''Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast'', the piece for which he is best remembered. He toured the [[United States]] in 1904. This made him even more interested in finding out about his racial [[heritage]]. He wanted to do for [[Africa]]n music what [[Johannes Brahms]] had done for [[Hungary|Hungarian]] music and [[Antonín Dvořák]] for [[Bohemian]] music. He had met the American poet [[Paul Laurence Dunbar]] in London and set some of his poems to music. Several people encouraged him to learn more about his heritage. Coleridge-Taylor was a shy man, but he was a very good [[conducting|conductor]]. He was often asked to [[adjudicate]] at music festivals. Coleridge-Taylor was 37 when he