Press Release
Hereford Three Choirs Festival announces full details of 300th birthday programme
Full programme details have been announced for the 300th anniversary Three Choirs Festival,
taking place 25 July – 1 August 2015 in Hereford. Repertoire for the main evening concerts in
Hereford Cathedral has been chosen to represent a summation of the great masterpieces of choral
and orchestral music written during the festival’s long history, and new works have also been
commissioned to mark the tercentenary.
The Three Choirs Festival Chorus and the resident Philharmonia Orchestra will be joined by some of
the UK’s leading soloists and conductors in works as diverse as Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Verdi’s
Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Nielsen’s Hymnus Amoris and Lux Aeterna by the Welsh
composer William Mathias. The Three Cathedral Choirs of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester will
collaborate for the first time with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in a performance of
Bach’s St Matthew Passion, conducted by the festival’s Artistic Director, Geraint Bowen.
The Three Cathedral Choirs will also give the first broadcast performance (on BBC Radio 3’s Choral
Evensong) of Bob Chilcott’s Three Choirs Service, a festival commission which will be premiered on
20 June in Hereford Cathedral. ‘As well as looking back over the festival’s long history, we are always
seeking to enrich that tradition for the future,’ said Mr Bowen.
The centenary of the First World War will be marked in several ways, including a rare performance
of Arthur Bliss’s Morning Heroes, written in memory of his brother who was killed in the trenches in
1915. Sir Andrew Davis will conduct and Samuel West will be the Orator. Baritone Roderick Williams
will focus on the grief of those left behind in a recital which includes the world premiere of ‘A swift
radiant morning’ by Rhian Samuel, a setting of poetry by C H Sorley, also killed in action in 1915. A
recital by Sarah Connolly will include the world premiere of A Welsh Night by Torsten Rasch, who has
set texts by Alun Lewis (1915-1944), a casualty of the Second World War, in his third Three Choirs
commission.
A celebrity organ recital by John Scott will include the world premiere of O Gott, du frommer Gott by
Anthony Powers, a contribution to the international Orgelbüchlein project, which aims to complete
the 118 missing pieces from Bach’s ‘Little Organ Book’ for which he noted titles but never completed
the music. Hereford Cathedral Voluntary Choir will premiere the winning introit from the Three
Choirs Festival 300th Anniversary Choral Composition Competition, which will have been chosen by
a panel chaired by composer Paul Mealor.
A festival commission by Alec Roth will be premiered by the vocal ensemble Voces8 in a recital
entitled ‘Three Centuries in One Afternoon’; and Pete Churchill, professor of jazz composition at the
Royal Academy of Music, has written a new cantata for the festival’s community choral project The
Gathering Wave, exploring the experiences of Polish refugees who settled near Hereford after the
Second World War.
Hereford Three Choirs Festival 2015 Press Release
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‘Dust and Ashes: Requiem for 500 Years’ is the title of the Orlando Consort’s exploration of the
Requiem Mass, which juxtaposes acknowledged masterpieces of medieval times with works by living
composers who have applied medieval techniques in their music. The Three Choirs Festival Youth
Choir will perform Bob Chilcott’s Requiem alongside Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms.
Jac van Steen will conduct Messiaen’s vast orchestral work Turangalîla-symphonie, with the
Philharmonia and soloists Valerie Hartmann-Claverie (ondes martenot) and Steven Osborne (piano).
Osborne will also give a solo recital comprising Schubert’s Sonata in B flat D 960 and Beethoven’s
Sonatas Op. 90 and Op. 101. Cellist Natalie Clein with pianist Håvard Grimse will give a recital of
works by Debussy, Britten, Rachmaninov and György Kurtág. The National Youth Orchestra of Wales
conducted by Paul Daniel will tackle Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Instrumental concerts also
include performances by the Wihan Quartet and La Serenissima in Leominster Priory, by Ensemble
360 and the Ferio Saxophone Quartet in the Courtyard centre for the Arts, Hereford, and daily
recitals by young artists in Holy Trinity Church, Hereford.
Late night performances will take place in the relaxed ambience of medieval All Saints Church. The
series begins with an evening of popular songs from the First World war era and immediately after,
presented by singers Audrey Palmer and Simon McEnery with pianist David Rhind-Tutt. The Lay
Clerks of Hereford Cathedral will present a selection of pieces from the lighter side of their
repertoire; female trio Juice will bring their unique, lively style to contemporary vocal music; the
Bardic Trio will visit from Scotland; and there will be performances by two of the brightest stars of
the international jazz piano scene: Gwilym Simcock with guitarist Mike Walker will respond to the
musical inspiration of the St Matthew Passion which precedes his session, and the Tord Gustavsen
Quartet concludes the week with a blend of Scandinavian cool and Gospel fervour.
A major focus of non-musical events is the theme of other ‘15’ anniversaries, in particular Magna
Carta. Hereford Cathedral holds the finest and most important version of this great series of
documents, the revision of 1217 issued by King John’s son, Henry III; the cathedral’s chancellor,
Canon Chris Pullin, will discuss its significance in one of a series of anniversary talks at the recently
refurbished riverside venue The Left Bank. Agincourt (1415), The Jacobite Rising (1715), Waterloo
(1815) and the history of the Three Choirs Festival itself are also on the menu. Notions of freedom,
liberty and democracy are celebrated in an exhibition of modern banners, inspired by Magna Carta
texts, in the nave of Hereford Cathedral; while their opposite coin, imprisonment, is represented by
an exhibition in the Cathedral Barn of creative needlework produced by prisoners who have been
trained by the social enterprise Fine Cell Work.
A packed Three Choirs Plus community programme provides additional strands of activity.
General booking for the Hereford Three Choirs Festival 2015 opened on 13 April.
Ticket Office and General Enquiries: 0845 652 1823
Hereford Three Choirs Festival 2015 Press Release
15 April, 2015
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www.3choirs.org
www.twitter.com/3choirs
www.facebook.com/3choirsfestival
Artistic Director Geraint Bowen and the Three Choirs Festival’s Chief Executive Dominic
Jewel are available for interview. Other artist interviews may be possible on request.
More information and a selection of high-resolution images from:
Clare Stevens
Marketing and Media Manager
Three Choirs Festival
7c College Green
Gloucester
GL1 2LX
Clare.Stevens@3choirs.org
01452 768935 (office)
07968 367079 (mobile)
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Three Choirs Festival has its origins at the end of the 17th
century in visits by the lay clerks of Gloucester, Hereford and
Worcester to one another’s cathedrals for joint services and informal
singing. More formal annual ‘music meetings’ can be traced back to
around 1715 and have continued ever since, interrupted only by the
two world wars, making this the oldest continuously running classical
music festival in the world. The event rotates between the three
cathedral cities on a three-year cycle. Hereford 2015 is the 288th
Three Choirs Festival.
2. The Three Choirs Festival Chorus is largely drawn from auditioned
members of the choral societies of Hereford, Gloucester and
Worcester, with the largest contingent each year coming from the
host city. Amateur choral singers have been taking part in the festival
since the middle of the 19th century to augment the cathedral choirs
of boy trebles and male altos, tenors and basses.
3. This is the fourth year of the Philharmonia’s orchestral residency at
the Three Choirs Festival. More information about the residency:
http://www.philharmonia.co.uk/concerts/residencies/three_choirs_festival
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4. The Gathering Wave brings together adult singing groups and
children from all over Herefordshire to work towards a performance
in Hereford Cathedral as part of the Three Choirs Festival. Run by the
county’s community music charity The Music Pool, it provides an
opportunity for amateur singers young and old to come together,
share their passion for singing with like-minded people, and play their
part in the most important event in Hereford’s musical calendar. In
2003, 2006, 2009 and 2012 more than 250 people took part.
Participating groups for 2015 include the Garrick Singers, Ledbury
Community Choir, the Fire Choir, the Golden Valley Singers, three
local primary schools and St Mary’s R C High School, Hereford.
http://www.musicpool.org.uk
5. Supporters of Hereford Three Choirs Festival 2015 include

Arts Council England

Hereford City Council

Gabbs Solicitors

Lee Bolton Monier-Williams

Alan Cadbury Charitable Trust

The Frank Clarke-Whitfeld Trust

The Bliss Trust

The Elmley Foundation

The Gibbs Charitable Trust

The Hawthorne Charitable Trust

The Music Reprieval Trust

The Perry family Charitable Trust

The Philharmonia Trust

The Pippin Trust
And a large number of individual donors
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