Women's Musical Legacies on the Record with Dr. Samantha Ege

With the arrival of Dr. Samantha Ege's latest recording Avril Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Concerto and Orchestral Works with the BBC Philharmonic this November, Dr. Samantha Ege reflects on her multifaceted career as a scholar and performer. She talks about her mission to bring the music of underrepresented composers out of the archive and into the recording catalogue. Discussing composers such as Florence Price, Undine Smith Moore, and Avril Coleridge-Taylor, Dr. Ege imparts the tools and strategies behind her work.

Biography

Dr. Samantha Ege is a pianist, author, and music historian. She is best known for her award-winning work on the African American composer Florence Price and critically acclaimed recordings of underrepresented composers. Dr. Ege's first book South Side Impresarios: How Race Women Transformed Chicago’s Classical Music Scene (2024) was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as “a powerful corrective to the ‘Great Man’ theory of history.” As a pianist, Dr. Ege made her Barbican debut in 2021 with a "vivid, revelatory recital" (iNews) and has performed across the UK, Europe, North America, and Southeast Asia. Her debut album was the 2018 Four Women: Music for Solo Piano by Price, Bilsland, Kaprálová, and Bonds  (“Ege is our trusted guide” – BBC Music Magazine). Her second was the 2021 Fantasie Nègre: The Piano Music of Florence Price (“Triumphs indeed” – New York Times). For her most recent recording project, Dr. Ege performs as the soloist alongside the BBC Philharmonic and conductor John Andrews in the world-premiere recording of Avril Coleridge-Taylor's Piano Concerto (out on Resonus Classics this November 21).