At Christmas 1853, Charles Dickens gave the first of his public readings of his own works in the building, repeating this to raise money for the Birmingham and Midland Institute; and Mendelssohn's "Elijah" (August 1846), Elgar's "The Dream of Gerontius" (October 1900) and Arthur Sullivan's "Overture di Ballo" (August 1870) received their premieres in the hall as part of the Triennial Musical Festival which commissioned new works for every season. The hall was the home venue for the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra from 1918 until 1991 when they moved to Symphony Hall.