New Album Release 'Coleridge-Taylor'

Chineke! Orchestra has released Coleridge-Taylor. The album features music by the celebrated African-British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with an appearance by award-winning US violinist Elena Urioste, plus a world premiere recording of a work by Coleridge-Taylor’s daughter Avril Coleridge-Taylor.

Coleridge-Taylor is the first release on Chineke! Records, the newly created partnership between Decca and the Chineke! Orchestra, Europe’s first professional majority Black and ethnically diverse orchestra. The release commemorates the 110th anniversary of the composer’s death (1st September 1912). The album includes the famous Violin Concerto in G minor which was originally written for Minnie “Maud” Powell, a champion of music by African-American and female composers, first performed days after the composer’s death. Another highlight is the 1898 African Suite, based on the ground-breaking poetry of the African-American poet Paul Lawrence Dunbar, a major influence on Coleridge-Taylor taking inspiration from the ideas of Pan-Africanism.

Executive Producer of Chineke! Records is Chi-chi Nwanoku CBE, Founder, Artistic and Executive Director of the Chineke! Foundation, which supports, inspires and encourages Black and ethnically diverse classical musicians working in the UK and Europe, by providing a platform on which to excel.