Tracks of a Trailblazer is live! Explore the travels of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in The Mixed Museum’s new audio series
The Mixed Museum’s compelling new audio project brings to life the rail journeys of Black mixed race composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor in late Victorian and early Edwardian Britain.
The series, supported by Great Western Railway's Customer Improvement and Communities Fund, sees Dr Chamion Caballero and Laura Smith undertake three of the journeys Coleridge-Taylor made between 1898 and 1902 on the Great Western Railway, exploring the intersection of Black, rail and music history – and reflecting on their own connections to his life, work and travels. An interactive digital map featuring archive imagery of Coleridge-Taylor and the places he visited completes the project.
Learn more about the project below.
Following in the footsteps of the British Black mixed-race composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
“It might sound strange, but I feel like we've travelled so much further than just miles on a train. Every stop on this journey has added another layer to Samuel’s story – his connections to Swansea, Gloucester and Newton Abbot all highlight just how special he was.”
So say Dr Chamion Caballero, Director of The Mixed Museum, and Laura Smith, Freelance Editorial Director, towards the end of the museum’s new audio project, Tracks of a Trailblazer.
https://trailblazer.mixedmuseum.org.uk/
The series is the continuation of the museum’s longstanding interest in the life and work of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, the British Black mixed race composer who was born in Holborn, central London in 1875, graduated from the Royal College of Music into a glittering international career and died in Croydon, south London in 1912, aged just 37.
The Mixed Museum's new audio series: Tracks of a Trailblazer
The audio project includes a three-part podcast series focusing on three specific journeys the composer took on the Great Western Railway during his rise to international fame between 1898 and 1902: to Gloucester, Newton Abbot and Swansea. An interactive map on the museum site, including illustrations by TMM's Artist in Residence Kinga Markus, features archive imagery of Coleridge-Taylor and his visits, as well as additional information about other journeys he made in the south west.
Blending immersive storytelling, expert interviews and archival research, the audio series invites listeners to follow in the footsteps of the composer as he navigated late Victorian and early Edwardian Britain as a jobbing conductor, musician and musical judge.
It explores the glamour – and discomfort – of train travel in the heyday of Britain’s railways, investigates the racial attitudes Coleridge-Taylor and his interracial family may have faced and reveals new research about the visits he made to the nation’s concert halls, theatres and historic chapels.
Listen to an audio clip from episode 2 of Tracks of a Trailblazer discussing the importance of Coleridge-Taylor conducting his most famous work, The Song of Hiawatha, at the Alexandra Hall in Newton Abbot in 1902.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor: “One of the most popular British composers of the 20th century”
The Mixed Museum is enormously grateful to all the guests who contributed their time and expertise to the project. They include Simon Carpenter, Tess Walker, Richard Ward, David Gwyn John, David Morgans, Huw Tregelles-Williams, Gareth Jones and Vicky Abbott who met us on location and showed us the places Coleridge-Taylor visited.
Professor Caroline Bressey and Rebecca Eversley-Dawes helped us understand the presence and experience of Black and mixed race people in Britain at this time. Chi-chi Nwanoku CBE, Nick Roberts and David Francis shared their knowledge of classical music history and Coleridge-Taylor’s place in it. Dr Oliver Betts gave us invaluable insights into rail travel in Britain at this time.
Dr Chamion Caballero, Director of The Mixed Museum and Co-Presenter of the series, said: “We’ve had a longstanding interest in the life and times of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, who was one of the most popular British composers of the 20th century but is now too often overlooked.
“In the period we’re covering in the series, he had just graduated from the Royal College of Music and was beginning his career in what would have been a very white musical sphere. We were fascinated to find out about his extensive rail journeys across Britain, including on the GWR network, and learn more about how he experienced the people he met on his travels, and how they saw him.
“To be able to bring together existing and new research and offer a fresh perspective on his life has been wonderful.”
Laura Smith, Freelance Editorial Director at The Mixed Museum and Co-Presenter, said: “Our mission at the museum is always to surface stories of racial mixing that might not be widely known and to place them firmly within British history. So to have the chance to tell these very local yet nationally important stories about Coleridge-Taylor’s interactions with people in England and Wales has been a joy. We’re immensely grateful to all the guests who have given their time and expert knowledge to help make this such a rich audio journey.”
Thank you to everyone who made Tracks of a Trailblazer possible
A huge thank you to our audio team David Cantello and Nathan Copelin at Front Ear Podcasts, composer Rob Manning for his original score, and voice actors Marcus Caballero and Doug Delaney. Thank you to The Mixed Museum’s Artist in Residence Kinga Markus for her original illustrations and to our digital map design and developer Jim McCormick. Thank you to Christopher Goddard for allowing us to use his remastered versions of Coleridge-Taylor’s works and to Carole Morgans for giving us permission to use her beautiful composition, The 23rd Psalm.
And finally, a huge thank you to Great Western Railways’ Customer and Community Improvement Fund for generously supporting this project
Learn more
Visit the Tracks of a Trailblazer page to access the audio series and digital map.
Read our blogposts about the origins of the project and the team's visit to Gloucester, Newton Abbot and Swansea.
Find out about Coleridge-Taylor’s visit to Brighton and his life-changing work, The Song of Hiawatha, in our mini exhibition, A Tremendous Ovation
Watch A Tremendous Ovation, our short film about Coleridge-Taylor’s 1908 visit to Brighton. Duration: 5:08 minutes