February 19, 1897-November 11, 1984.
Born into a musical family from Pembroke East, Maude Bascome Cummings Taylor emigrated to the U.S. as a young woman. She became a respected church organist and choir director in Brooklyn, New York, and also ran a music school.
Taylor, the eldest of nine children, inherited her musical talent from her mother, Rhoda Bascome. She began taking piano lessons at age three and wrote her first song at age 12. She composed numerous musical works during her lifetime and was a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.
Taylor, who was raised as a member of St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, attended Berkeley Institute. She came of age during the silent movie era when musicians performed on stage at film screenings. (See Anthony Ferraz.) She played piano at silent movies in Bermuda, but had to turn down an offer to tour the U.S. with a film company because her deeply religious father, Ainsworth Bascome, did not approve.
In 1923, at age 26, she moved to New York to further her musical studies at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. She married Richard Cummings the following year. The couple, who later divorced, had two children, Gloria and Richard.
Taylor’s work as a choir director began shortly after her move to New York. She served for a year as an organist and choir director at Friendship Baptist Church, followed by 14 years service at Newman Memorial Church.
In the 1930s she opened a music school, MBC Studio, teaching voice and piano, and presenting annual recitals. She later established a scholarship fund to assist promising students who wished to further their studies.
Taylor continued with her own music studies, taking courses over the years at Columbia University in New York, the Fontainebleau Schools in France, Matlock College in England, and Mozart University in Salzburg.
In 1939, she became choir director—the post was later renamed minister of music—of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Brooklyn. She led its 50-member senior choir for 45 years until her death at age 87, and taught voice and piano to many of its members.
Taylor’s links with Bermuda remained strong, even though Brooklyn became her permanent home.
On August 22, 1934, four of her songs were performed at a Festival of Negro Music held at the Colonial Opera House to commemorate the abolition of slavery.. Her sister, pianist Thyra Bascome, played at the same concert.
The following year, on July 13, the Bermuda Recorder reported on a school recital in its ‘So This is New York’ column. The article, headlined ‘A Brilliant Teacher and Pianist’, told of how 40 students performed works by Verdi, Chopin and other composers.
In September 1956, her sister Thyra, returning home after four years in New York, spoke about Taylor’s school in an interview in the Recorder.
Classes for men, women and children, ran from early morning to night at the MBC Studio, which was in her home and was equipped with six pianos. Taylor’s husband William Taylor—whom she married in 1944—taught piano, specializing in harmony and counterpoint, while her daughter Gloria DeNard—a graduate of the Juilliard School—Gloria’s husband Frederick and two others taught voice. Thyra Bascome was also a MBC teacher.
The Recorder reported in its October 29, 1972 edition how Cornerstone honoured Taylor at a concert at which her compositions were performed by soloists and four church choirs.
She was similarly honoured at her funeral at Cornerstone on November 17, 1984, when soloists, including her daughter, sang three of her songs. Today, Taylor is remembered at Cornerstone, which has a membership of 1,500, as a “composer, musician par excellence”.
In 2006, Taylor was the recipient of a Founders Award from the Bermuda Arts Council. Gloria DeNard, who is executive director of Manna House Workshops, in New York, a performing arts centre in East Harlem, sang one of her mother’s songs at the ceremony.
Two of Taylor’s grandsons are professional musicians. Richard Cummings is a pianist and composer who has worked with many top artists including Harry Belafonte and Dianne Reeves. Kenwood Dennard is an internationally known drummer and an associate professor at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
