Emidy’s concert was a huge success, the Royal Cornwall Gazettereporting that it was ‘numerously and fashionably attended,’ hailing Emidy’s ‘taste in selection’ of pieces. Viscount Falmouth.Įmidy also advertises ‘Lessons on the Violin, Tenor, Violoncello and Flute,’ as well as his pianoforte turning services. Emidy Respectfully announces to the Ladies and Gentlemen of Truro and its Vicinities, that his Annual Concert and Ball will take place at the Assembly Room, Truro, on Thursday Evening, the 15th December next, under the Patronage of the Right Hon. In November 1814 an advertisement for a ‘ Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Music‘ appeared in the Royal Cornwall Gazette, running as follows: Royal Cornwall Gazette | 26 November 1814 And he too was set to impress those around him with his musical talent, entertaining members of Cornwall high society at concerts and balls throughout the early nineteenth century. After gaining his freedom, he was pressganged into the British Navy where he served as a ship’s fiddler, before he was eventually discharged in Cornwall.Įmidy was a talented violin player, like his contemporary George Bridgetower. Joseph Antonio Emidy was born in Guinea in 1775, and as child he was enslaved by Portuguese traders. We will come back to the immensely talented George Bridgetower, his friendship with one of the greatest composers who ever lived, and how his legend lived on in British music and culture long after his death in 1860. Frederick settled in Dublin, marrying an Irish woman there, but sadly died young in 1813.Ĭoncerto on the Violencello by Mr Bridgetower | Dublin Evening Post | 7 April 1808
In 1808 Frederick played for the first time in Dublin, for the ‘Benefit of the Incorporated Irish Musical Fund Society, for the relief of distressed Musicians and their Families’ ( Dublin Evening Post, April 1808).
Meanwhile, his brother Frederick Bridgetower, a talented cello player, joined George from Europe in 1805. Mr Attwood’s Beneft – A Concerto on the Violin by Mr Bridgetower | Cambridge Intelligencer | 20 February 1796įor example in 1796 Bridgetower performed at Mr Attwood’s Benefit, as described in the Cambridge Intelligencer. In parenthesis it is noted how he is ‘son to the African prince.’ The Chester Chroniclereports in August 1789 that Bridgetower had been taken under the wing of the Prince of Wales, and from this point on our newspapers record the various concerts in which Bridgetower performed. The Kentish Gazette tells of how Bridgetower’s father John Frederick was ’emancipated’ by his enslaver in Jamaica, before travelling to Russia, Italy, Germany and France.īut it was Britain that his son was to make his home, making him one of Britain’s earliest Black musicians and composers. The Chester Chronicle, later that year in August 1789, writes further of young Bridgetower’s talents, labelling him the ‘greatest phenomenon ever heard.’ It describes how he ‘performs the most difficult pieces on the violin and goes thro’ all the mazes of sound with wonderful spirit, execution, and delicacy.’Īs George Bridgetower was of African descent, the newspapers of the time were strongly preoccupied with his race, the Chester Chroniclenoting how ‘genius does not solely belong to the tincture of a skin!’īorn in Poland, George Bridgetower’s mother was a Polish aristocrat, whilst his father was from the West Indies, and it was often reported that he was an African prince. In January 1789 George Frederick Augustus Bridgetower, aged only ten years old, made his ‘entrée in the world as a musician.’ Saunders News-Letter reports how this young boy ‘promises to be one of the first players in Europe,’ his instrument the violin, and his teacher Austrian composer Joseph Haydn.
So read on to discover more about child prodigy George Bridgetower who took the courts of Europe by storm in the late eighteenth century, violinist Joseph Antonio Emidy who entertained Regency society, and radio and stage star of the twentieth century Evelyn Dove – as well as the immensely talented turn-of-the-century composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, and the incomparable Bond songstress Shirley Bassey.
#YOUNG ENGLISH GIRL MUSIC PRODIGY SERIES#
In this first of a series of special blogs, we begin by celebrating the work of five Black British musicians, and highlighting their amazing legacies, using newspapers taken from The Archive.
#YOUNG ENGLISH GIRL MUSIC PRODIGY ARCHIVE#
October is Black History Month, and to celebrate, here at The Archive we are uncovering the amazing stories of Black British figures from history.
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