Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 1875-1912

'Far away the cleverest fellow amongst the young men'.

-Sir Edward Elgar, in 1898

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor wrote and conducted a piece for the 1898 Three Choirs Festival on the recommendation of Sir Edward Elgar, and his Orchestral Ballade in A Minor was very well received. Elgar wrote that he was, 'Far away the cleverest fellow amongst the young men'. Coleridge-Taylor returned to conduct his own compositions in 1899, 1900 and 1903.