Description:Birmingham Triennial Music Festival, took place from 1768 until the First World War, and was an important showcase of contemporary musical talent. The festival of 1900 included a performance of The Song of Hiawatha by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Britain's most renowned black composer.
Coleridge-Taylor's work attracted "a crowded assembly, completely filling every available space" in the city's Town Hall (Birmingham Daily Mail 4/10/1900.) The composer attended the performance, at the end of which he came forward "and was received with a perfect oration from choristers and audience