Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson

African American composer, arranger, and performer Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson was active in classical music, jazz, and pop. In addition to chamber music and keyboard pieces, he composed large orchestral and choral works. Perkinson co-founded and conducted the Symphony of the New World in New York in 1965, later serving as music director. The Symphony was the first racially integrated classical orchestra in the U.S. His classical compositions include two Sinfoniettas for strings and Grass: Poem for piano, strings, and percussion (1973). In later life, Perkinson directed the Center for Black Music Research and the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble at Columbia College in Chicago, where he died on March 9, 2004. His classical works have been only sparsely recorded, but his String Quartet No. 1 ("Calvary") appeared on the 2023 Catalyst Quartet album Uncovered: Vol. 3.