Despite a series of groundbreaking firsts, Avril Coleridge-Taylor (1903-1998) has remained an obscure figure until now. Born the daughter of (at the time) renowned composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, she won a scholarship to Trinity College of Music, became the first female conductor of the Royal Marines, the first woman to conduct at the bandstand in Hyde Park, and was a frequent guest conductor of both the BBC and London Symphony Orchestras. She was also a gifted pianist. 

As a composer, her music included large-scale orchestral works, chamber music and songs, some of them published under the pseudonym Peter Riley. In 1952, she undertook an ill-advised tour of South Africa where she declared her support for the policies of apartheid. Ironically, it all ended in tears when authorities learned of her Black heritage, leading to cancelled work and financial hardship in later life. 

This welcome and generously programmed disc is a chance to assess a composer whose music was often impacted by her bearing her father’s name as well as the difficulties facing a woman – and a woman of colour at that – in the mid-20th century.