The French violinist, conductor and composer left an indelible mark as a versatile artist and his historical significance lies also in his distinctive background as a biracial free man of color.  Saint-Georges was born in the French colony of Guadeloupe to the wealthy, white planter Georges Bologne de Saint-Georges, and Anne, one of the Creole people Georges kept enslaved.  Saint-Georges was educated in Paris and grew up to be a virtuoso violinist, conductor, composer, and accomplished fencer.  Intriguingly, despite his formidable reputation as a musician, no documentation exists of his musical education prior to 1764.  During the French Revolution, he served as colonel of the Légion St.-Georges, the first all-black regiment in Europe, but today he is best remembered for being the first European classical composer of African ancestry.  His exceptional talents rendered him the first classical composer of African descent to attain widespread acclaim within the realms of European music. He composed an array of violin concertos, string quartets, sinfonia concertantes, violin duets, sonatas, two symphonies and an assortment of stage works, notably opéra comique. His life is the subject of the entertainingly soapy recent biographical drama Chevalier [link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LtCIImfSCk] , where his is portrayed by actor and musician Kelvin Harrison Jr. 

Bologne probably composed his violin concertos initially for his own use, although their later publication ensured their wider dissemination. Their reputation is further attested to by the existence of manuscript copies of the works most of which appear to postdate their publication. There are also several concertos of uncertain authenticity that are preserved in manuscript parts that possibly represent works composed later in Saint-Georges’ career but to date no detailed investigation of these works has been carried out. Saint-Georges remained active as a performer after the French Revolution, albeit in different circumstances to those under which he worked in the 1770s and 1780s, and it is possible that he continued to compose.

Saint-Georges generally published his concertos and symphonies concertantes in pairs, typically with one work scored for strings alone and the second with wind instruments; the present concerto is scored for strings alone and, unusually, was published alone, both here and in the other contemporary edition by Henry. It was doubtless composed by Saint-Georges around the time of publication, for a performance with the Concert des Amateurs.