1. Gwendolen Avril Coleridge-Taylor was an English pianist, conductor, and composer.
12 Facts About Avril Coleridge-Taylor
1. 2.
Avril Coleridge-Taylor was the daughter of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his wife Jessie.
3.
Gwendolen Avril Coleridge-Taylor was born in South Norwood, London, the daughter of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his wife Jessie Walmisley, who had met as students at the Royal College of Music.
4.
On 19 April 1924, Coleridge-Taylor married Harold Dashwood, in the Croydon parish church.
5.
Avril Coleridge-Taylor initially composed and conducted using her first name and maiden surname.
6.
Avril Coleridge-Taylor was invited on a tour of South Africa in 1952, during the period of apartheid, arriving on the inaugural flight of de Havilland's Comet passenger jet from Croydon to Johannesburg.
7.
Avril Coleridge-Taylor died in Seaford on the Sussex coast in late 1998.
8.
Avril Coleridge-Taylor wrote her first composition, "Goodbye Butterfly", at the age of 12.
9.
Avril Coleridge-Taylor was the founder and conductor of both the Coleridge-Taylor Symphony Orchestra and its accompanying musical society in 1941, intended to give employment to musicians during the depression.
10.
Avril Coleridge-Taylor founded the Malcolm Sargent Symphony Orchestra and the New World Singers.
11.
In 1956, Avril Coleridge-Taylor arranged and conducted the spirituals performed in a BBC radio version of Marc Connelly's 1930 play The Green Pastures.
12.
Avril Coleridge-Taylor's compositions include large-scale orchestral works, as well as songs, keyboard, and chamber music.