Life is full of surprises and we certainly were not expecting Stephen Bourne, a published author with a number of books to his credit, to ask us out of the blue to publish his latest book. When he said he wanted to tell the story of Amanda Ira Aldridge and Avril Coleridge-Taylor we really could not refuse. Both these ladies, the mixed heritage daughters of famous fathers, have long been of interest to us.
Stephen’s informative and nicely illustrated book is now available to buy (just click on the cover):
For a long time recordings of the work of these two composers were hard to find but that is changing, gradually.
There are two short pieces by Avril on ‘Beyond Twilight’, a CD of music for piano and cello by a number of female composers, and her ‘Sussex Landscape’ is included on a CD that features some her father’s best music (his Violin Concerto is a particular favourite).
Music by Amanda (aka Montague Ring) is harder to come by but the American pianist, Rochelle Sennet, has included some piano pieces by her on two recent releases:
This music is all available on Spotify for those of you who have access to that service.
We do hope you will have the chance to listen to their music while reading about these ground-breaking women in Stephen’s book.
You can find more about Stephen’s work here: http://www.stephenbourne.co.uk/