Welcome To Avie Records

“Coleridge-Taylor’s music is both richly lyrical and very sweet at the same time,” says Curtis Stewart. “It’s truly amazing. And when you know something about his life, when you’ve learned a bit about everything he experienced, I always think—whenever I’m playing his music—about the incredible grace and poise he must have had, to be a Black musician in England at the time that he grew up there. It could not have been easy for him, but he left this astonishing collection of works, many of which have been lost but are now being rediscovered.”

The process of finding, selecting, and preparing the compositions on the album has required more than two years of research and effort, Repper notes. But with the recording now completed—marking the first-ever recording by the National Philharmonic with Repper as conductor—the lengthy endeavor clearly has been well worth it.”

Strings Magazine cover feature, Summer 2025