Payare and OSM Featured in Financial Times Ahead of Edinburgh International Festival Performances

Aug 11, 2026

A Financial Times feature on Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Scenes from The Song of Hiawatha is out now ahead of Rafael Payare and the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal’s performances of the piece at the Edinburgh International Festival on August 19 (with an additional program at the festival on August 20).

“I had heard about the piece, but not conducted it or studied it,” says Payare. “I got the score and looked into the story of how much it was played at the beginning of the last century. The music is very tuneful and a bit Elgar-ish. You can see how Coleridge-Taylor [who was only in his early twenties] was evolving through the three different parts. So I thought how about we present in Edinburgh this view of how North America was viewed as a foreign land?

“At a time when the culture of amateur choral singing in England was so strong, Coleridge-Taylor was trying to give an opportunity to everybody who could sing to be part of it, as though he was taking them on a transatlantic voyage. It is mind-blowing that such a popular piece has been neglected so long. I am happy that we will be doing it some justice.”

Read the full piece here.