Hereford
2015
25 July –
1 August
Booking
Brochure
3choirs.org
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WELCOME
It’s an honour
to introduce the
programme for the
300th anniversary
Three Choirs Festival
at Hereford. Since
1715, interrupted only
by two world wars,
our three cities of
Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester
have taken it in turn to host annual ‘music
meetings’, as they were originally known,
and this year we present a summation of
the great masterpieces of the repertoire
written in the intervening three centuries.
In the course of a week you’ll be able to
hear works as diverse as Beethoven’s
Missa Solemnis, Verdi’s Requiem, Elgar’s
The Dream of Gerontius and Bernstein’s
Chichester Psalms. Alongside these we
also revisit less well-known works, such
as Nielsen’s stirring Hymnus Amoris
and William Mathias’s fine Lux Aeterna,
commissioned for the 1982 Hereford
festival, just ten years before the Welsh
composer’s untimely death. 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, for which we
welcome Sir Andrew Davis back to
the festival.
The Orchestra of the Age of
Enlightenment joins us for the first
time in a performance with the Three
Cathedral Choirs of Bach’s monumental
2
St Matthew Passion; and we are delighted
to welcome back the Philharmonia
Orchestra for the fourth year of its
continuing residency at the festival. All
the resources that this fabulous orchestra
can muster will be packed into the
cathedral for a rare performance – and
the first ever in any Three Choirs city –
of Messiaen’s epic Turangalîla-Symphonie.
Coupled with the Prelude & Liebestod
from Tristan und Isolde, this spectacular
evening, conducted by Jac van Steen,
will be one of the week’s many
unmissable events.
As well as looking back over the festival’s
long history, we are always seeking to
enrich that tradition for the future, with
commissions this year by Bob Chilcott,
Anthony Powers, Alec Roth, Rhian
Samuel and Torsten Rasch. And on the
last night of the festival our community
choir The Gathering Wave gives the first
performance of Echoes: A Song of Poland
by Pete Churchill, which has been
inspired by the stories of the Polish
refugee community who lived at Foxley,
near Hereford, in the years after the
Second World War. We will also be
presenting the winning entry in our
composition competition in association
with Novello at Evensong on the Sunday.
Instrumental and song recitals feature
prominently in the daytime schedules of
the modern Three Choirs Festival, and
some of the world’s most distinguished
solo performers join us this year: organist
John Scott, pianist Steven Osborne,
mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly and
baritone Roderick Williams, as well as
ensembles such as the Wihan Quartet,
La Serenissima, the Orlando Consort
and the chart-topping vocal ensemble
Voces8 in their Three Choirs debut.
There’s something for everyone with
our Three Choirs Plus programme of
activities ranging from dance, craft and
art workshops to talks on literature and
philosophy. Fireworks at the Bishop’s
Palace on the first night will launch a
sparkling festival and I look forward
to seeing you at this spectacular 300th
birthday party in the glorious
Herefordshire countryside!
Geraint Bowen
Artistic Director
© Ash Mills
In addition to our own birthday, we
mark other ‘15’ anniversaries such as
Magna Carta (1215), Agincourt (1415)
and Waterloo (1815) in music, words and
art, with concerts, talks and exhibitions
taking place in a variety of venues around
Hereford, including the spectacular
riverside setting of the refurbished Left
Bank; the Courtyard Centre for the Arts;
and All Saints Church, where some of
the world’s leading jazz musicians will
perform for us on several evenings.
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
3
Contents
© Clare Stevens
5 Season tickets
Stewardship
Cathedral services
Cathedral rehearsals
6Exhibitions
Souvenir programme book
8 Festival facilities
10Map
11 Venue information
13Festival Programme
28 Three Choirs Plus
33Booking and payment information
34Accessibility and accommodation
Terms and conditions
38Sponsors
Three choirs
festival
300th
anniversary
Season tickets
Cathedral services
All 11 cathedral concerts this year are
eligible for inclusion in our bespoke
season ticket package.
The various cathedral services during the
week are at the very heart of our unique
festival. Information about daily Evensong
as well as the Festival Eucharist is given
in this brochure, but these services are
not ticketed: admission is free and all are
most welcome.
• B
uy a season ticket for your selection
of 10 or more different cathedral
concerts and receive a 10% discount
• B
uy a season ticket for your selection
of 5 or more different cathedral
concerts and receive a 5% discount
• R
equest the same seat for every
concert, or choose a different seat each
time, picking from any price band
• W
here multiple season tickets are
being bought, adjacent seats may
be requested
Any additional single tickets purchased
(ie, fewer than 5) will not be included in
the season ticket package. All season ticket
applications will be processed in order of
receipt, and adjacent seats or same seats
are subject to availability.
Stewardship
A season ticket holder who is attending 10
or more events at an A, B or C price becomes
a Festival Steward and is entitled to
• A
dmission to rehearsals in the
cathedral (at the conductor’s discretion)
• Listing in the programme book
• F
ormal Civic Lunch with the Mayor
at the Town Hall (limited to first 50
applications)
The Opening Service is a ticketed event,
though there is no admission charge.
Tickets for the Opening Service should
be booked as for any other event but
are not part of the season ticket package.
Cathedral
rehearsals
Admission to rehearsals in Hereford
Cathedral is restricted to Three Choirs
Festival Society members, those who have
purchased season ticket(s) for 10 or more
concerts, and those holding a rehearsal
pass, and is strictly at the discretion of
the conductor and festival officials.
A limited number of rehearsal passes will
be available from the ticket office for each
relevant day (some of which will only be
issued on the day itself ) for accompanied
children under 16, senior citizens and
music students. A rehearsal schedule will
be available from the ticket office during
festival week. No photography or recording
is permitted, other than by an accredited
festival photographer.
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
5
Exhibitions
Hereford Cathedral is celebrating the
800th anniversary of Magna Carta with
a special exhibition of one of its treasures:
the Hereford Magna Carta from 1217.
The display will tell the story of how
Magna Carta survived the attempt of King
John to suppress it and will explore laws
of the time that the charter confirmed
and created. NB Timed tickets will be
issued for this exhibition, available from
the admission desk at the entrance or via
3choirs.org
There is also an installation of modern
calligraphic banners inspired by Magna
Carta in the nave.
The Friends of Hereford Three Choirs
Festival will be running their annual Art
Exhibition and sale of original artwork
in the Sports Hall of Hereford Cathedral
School, Castle Street, Hereford. It will
be open 10.00 am – 6.00 pm throughout
the festival. Sir Roy Strong will formally
open the exhibition at 10.15 am on
Saturday 25 July.
Fine Cell Work, a social enterprise
which trains prisoners in skilled, creative
needlework, will exhibit some of the
superb results in the Cathedral Barn (on
the corner of the Cathedral Close and St
John Street). The prisoners are paid for
their work, which is then sold around the
world. It includes cushions, bags, pictures
and patchwork quilts. Some pieces are
interior design commissions, others
heritage pieces for organisations such
as the V&A and English Heritage.
6
The Guild of Herefordshire Craftsmen
and Cotswold Craftsmen will this year
be exhibiting in the recently reordered
St Peter’s Church, St Peter’s Square. Do
visit them there to admire and purchase
jewellery, pottery, textiles, woodwork and
other products made by the skilled artists
and craft workers who earn a living by
their craft around the county.
Souvenir
programme book
The Three Choirs Festival souvenir
programme book is both a handy
guide to the week’s events and a unique,
detailed record of each year’s festival. This
beautifully-produced publication contains
full details of every concert alongside
texts, notes, articles, photographs and
much more. Our archive contains editions
stretching back over many years and
re-reading them vividly brings alive past
festivals. The souvenir programme book
will be on sale for £15. If pre-ordered
before 1 June, however, the book is sold
at a discount of £2, for £13. We advise
pre-ordering, both to save money and
to avoid disappointment; only a limited
number will be on sale during the festival
itself. Pre-ordered books can be collected
from the ticket office on your arrival in
Hereford, or posted to you in advance (£5
p&p, UK only). Please tick the appropriate
box(es) on the booking form.
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
© Derek Foxton
FESTIVAL
Hot Suppers
FESTIVAL Ticket Office
The on-site Festival Ticket Office will
open for personal booking on 15 July in
the Zimmerman Building of Hereford
Cathedral School, in Church Street.
For details of opening hours see p 33.
ZIMMERMAN CAFÉ
Run by the Friends of Hereford Three
Choirs Festival, the Zimmerman Café
is situated in the Zimmerman Building,
Church Street, and offers hot and cold
drinks and light refrehments.
FESTIVAL VILLAGE
The Festival Village, situated to the
rear of 1 Castle Street, promises to be the
social hub of the festival. The Friends of
Hereford Three Choirs Festival will again
provide their popular hot suppers together
with a café in the Sports Hall of Hereford
Cathedral School. There will be a Quiet
Room for relaxation and the Sports Hall
will also be the location for the Friends
art exhibition (more details on p 6).
The Festival Bar will be open from noon
until midnight for pre- and post-concert
refreshments, serving a range of local
real ales and ciders, wines, spirits and
soft drinks.
8
The Friends of Hereford Three Choirs
Festival provide three-course meals
with waitress service at 6 pm every
evening, in the dining room of Hereford
Cathedral School, 1 Castle Street. They
cost £20 and must be pre-booked via
the ticket office.
Menus are as follows:
Saturday 25 July
Darne of salmon
Sunday 26 July
Steak and kidney pie
Monday 27 July
Cottage pie
Tuesday 28 July
Coq au vin
Wednesday 29 July
Gammon, pineapple and tomato
Thursday 30 July
Lamb dish/casserole
Friday 31 July
Fish in batter
Saturday 1 August
Loin of pork with apple sauce
There is a vegetarian option every
night and a selection of desserts plus
a cheeseboard, wine, soft drinks and
coffee with mints.
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
facilities
Festival Shop
LEFT BANK
The Friends of Hereford Three Choirs
Festival will be running a Festival Shop in
the Stonemasons’ Yard next to the north
transept of the cathedral, selling a range of
gifts and souvenirs. The work of Hereford
Cathedral’s head stonemason Simon
Hudson will be on sale and a speciallycommissioned sculpture will be raffled
at the end of the week.
The Left Bank is a modern function
suite situated a few minutes’ walk from
Hereford Cathedral in a spectacular
location by the 15th-century stone
bridge over the River Wye. Thanks
to a partnership with the new owners,
we shall be using it for the first time
for the majority of the talks and society
meetings in this year’s festival.
Jonathan Gibbs Books
© Alex Ramsay
Jonathan Gibbs makes a welcome
return this year, based in the spacious
surroundings of the Left Bank coachhouse. His range of books and music
will be complemented by CDs available
from Outback Records in Church Street.
FRIENDS
FRIENDS OF HEREFORD
THREE CHOIRS FESTIVAL
The Friends of Hereford Three Choirs
Festival are a dedicated team of volunteers
who support the festival by fundraising,
hospitality and sponsorship. They are
always delighted to hear from anyone
wishing to become a member or
volunteer. For further information please
contact Fi Hanks on 07816 622681 or
fihanks@aol.com
FLOWERS
The Friends of Hereford Three Choirs
Festival organize a group of volunteers to
do all the flower arrangements in Hereford
Cathedral, the Cathedral School and
Bishop’s Palace. Individual arrangements
can be sponsored in memory of friends
or relatives or on behalf of companies.
To arrange sponsorship please contact
Susan Hunter on 01981 240561 or
charles.hunter@phonecoop.coop
9
Venue
Information
A49
Hereford City Centre
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Shops &
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14
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
1. Hereford Cathedral
3. All Saints Church
11. Left Bank
Cathedral Close HR1 2NG
High Street HR4 9AA
Bridge Street HR4 9DG
Zone A:
Nave and most of tower plinth
(unrestricted view).
Zone A: Nave and Ground
Floor Café area
Seating in both of these areas
will be reserved, and offers
either an unrestricted view
of the stage, or a partially
restricted view due to pillars
and other furniture.
12. Apple Store Gallery
Zone B:
Nave front two rows and rear
of plinth; side seats in the nave
(partially restricted view).
Zone C:
Side seats in the nave, side
aisles and quire stalls (no direct
view or very restricted view,
but with TV monitor available).
Zone D:
Seats on the plinth side steps,
front four rows of the transepts,
seats in the quire and sanctuary
(no direct view but TV monitor
available).
Zone E (unreserved seating):
Rear of the transepts (no direct
view but TV monitor available).
Zone F (unreserved seating):
Quire side aisles, retro-quire
and Lady Chapel (no direct
view but TV monitor available).
2. Holy Trinity Church
164 Whitecross Road HR4 0DF
Zone A: Central Nave
Seating in this area is on the
flat, with an unrestricted view
of the stage.
Zone B: Rear Nave and
Side Aisles
Seating in the rear nave is
on the flat, and looks forward
towards the stage.
Seating in the side aisles is
unreserved and has varying
view of the stage due to pillars.
Zone B: Café Balcony
Seating in this area will be
unreserved at café tables, and
will afford varying levels of view
of the stage due to pillars and
the overhang of the balcony.*
Zone C: Standing Tickets
4. St Francis Xavier
Church
19 Broad Street HR4 9AP
Unreserved seating in the nave
and balcony areas.*
5. The Courtyard
Edgar Street HR4 9JR
Reserved seating in the stalls or
gallery, all with an unrestricted
view of the stage.
6. St John’s Methodist Church
St Owen Street HR1 2PR
Unreserved seating in the
ground floor and balcony areas.*
7. Festival Ticket Office
Zimmerman Building,
Hereford Cathedral School,
Church Street HR1 2LR
8. Cathedral Barn
St John Street HR4 9BN
9. Festival Village
Rear of No 1 Castle Street
*Please note that access to
the balcony is via stairs only
10. Bishop’s Palace and Garden
Unit 1, Rockfield Road HR1 2UA
13. St Peter’s Church
St Peter’s Square HR1 2PG
14. Leominster Priory
Church Street, Leominster HR6 8NH
Zone A: Central Nave, South
Side Aisle & Norman Nave
Seating in the central nave
and Norman nave will have an
unrestricted view of the stage.
Zone A side aisle seating
will have a partially restricted
view due to pillars in the
peripheral vision.
Zone B: South Side Aisle
& Quire Stalls
Zone B side aisle seating
will have a restricted view of
the stage, with pillars falling
centrally in the line of vision.
Seating in the quire stalls
will be behind the stage.
Zone C: Unreserved
Norman Nave
Seating in this area will have
little or no direct view of
the stage.
15. Dore Abbey
off B4347 near Ewyas Harold HR2 0AA
16. Lugwardine Church
Junction of A438 and
Rhystone Lane, Lugwardine
village HR1 4AE
17. Hereford Museum
Resource and Learning
Centre
58 Friars Street HR4 0AS
HR4 9BN
11
Elgar
The Apostles
Rutter
Gloria
Handel
Messiah
Orff
Carmina Burana
Bernstein
Chichester Psalms
Brahms
Lieberslieder Walzer
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PLUS stay up to date with the latest international news and competition coverage
Yale Russian Chorus
visit Red Square,
Moscow, in 1958
A world without fear
Yale Russian Chorus was born in the McCarthy era and has lived to see the collapse
of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the threat of a new Cold War. The
choir turned up the heat in Russian/US cultural relations in the late 1950s, the flame
kept alive ever since by the YRC Alumni. Graeme Kay relates their extraordinary story.
PHOTOS COURTESY YALE RUSSIAN CHORUS ALUMNI ARCHIVE
‘I
never thought it would last as long,’
says the founding conductor of Yale
Russian Chorus (YRC), 85-year-old
Denis Mickiewicz, an emeritus professor at
Duke University. He now lives in retirement,
but as conductor of the choir’s 60th anniversary celebrations last year would clearly
expect to be pressed in to service – health
permitting – should a 65th be proposed.
‘They’re making progress,’ says the indefatigable Mickiewicz, disarmingly. ‘My tenor
section got wiped out by age, but the basses
got better. There are endless possibilities.
The guys feel it. I am convinced the next
concert will be better.’
Though his conversation is laced with
an engaging merriment, there is neither
irony nor self-deprecating humour in this
comment from YRC’s charismatic and
rigorous progenitor. Mickiewicz was born
into a musical Russian family in Latvia;
naturally gifted as an instrumentalist on
piano and guitar, he also sang as a chorister in Riga Cathedral Choir; during the
second world war the family left their native
land, migrating first to German-occupied
www.choirandorgan.com
CO_0614_F_Yale Russian T.indd 67
Poland and thence to a camp in Austria,
where he made music with Cossacks, Poles
and Yugoslavs. In Salzburg, he enrolled
at the Mozarteum and served as assistant
to the choir conductor of the Orthodox
Archbishop’s Church; to support himself,
he played Viennese music, jazz, and gipsy
music in various bands. In 1952, the family
emigrated to the USA, where Mickiewicz
enrolled at Yale School of Music. The YRC
began among a small group of students of
Russian, when Mickiewicz was invited to
give a talk on Russian culture and made the
attendees sing instead of listen. The group’s
first president, George Litton, recalls: ‘Denis
was always very serious about the music. For
us it was partly the music, and … the girls.
In those days, Yale was an all-male school;
weekends were spent chasing girls. When
we finally got good enough, Denis suggested
we visit the girls’ colleges: Smith or Vassar.
Our repertoire was not close barbershop
harmony – very effete and very nice – but
different stuff. Stuff where you rip open
the shirt and let it all hang out, so to speak.
The girls went nuts, and it was fantastic –
suddenly, this group of oddballs, we were
one of the hottest numbers on campus.’
Mickiewicz began teaching the students
a repertoire of Russian folk songs and old
Russian Orthodox religious music remembered from his childhood. While Senator
Joseph McCarthy ranted about the spread
YRC founding conductor
Denis Mickiewicz: ‘America
woke up to Russia’
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 CHOIR & ORGAN
67
14/10/2014 13:09:40
Sidney Sussex Choir record their latest CD
of William Croft verse anthems for Obsidian
Records, due for release in early 2015
Johann van der Sandt leads a
Morning Sing at the 10th World
Symposium on Choral Music
The world in song
Carol Carver and David Mennicke were inspired by an international choral
symposium in South Korea. PHOTOS BY MOON GI KIM
T
he World Symposium on Choral
Music is a one-week event organised every three years by the
International Federation for Choral Music.
The 10th Symposium, held on 6-13 August
in Seoul, Korea, abounded with moments
of inspiration and transformation. Ten
local choirs were joined by 25 others
from around the world, and 30 renowned
conductor/teachers led global choral repertoire and gave presentations. It is easy to
think that the silo of choirs and their music
in your own country is the epicentre of the
choral world; then you hear a choir from
Inner Mongolia or Morocco or Indonesia
and you know choral music is a worldwide
phenomenon, thriving and growing in
unimaginable ways.
Each group presented their music with
excellence, giving audiences not only a rich
palette of sounds but also visual elements
that made it easy to attend eight hours of
concerts per day. Rare was the choir that
processed to the stage, stood in three rows
and sang their programme, possibly due to
the fact that many were from non-western
countries – it gave cause to assess what a
choral concert is about, and what it can be.
www.choirandorgan.com
CO_0614_F_World choral symposium report and Freestyle T.indd 37
Concert sessions – where three choirs
performed for about 30 minutes each –
presented a wide range of repertoire and
singing styles. Each concert session was well
thought out, contrasting in elements and,
for the most part, easy to access since most
of them were on the campus of the National
Theater of Korea. One notable session was
given by the Wonju Civic Chorale, Roomful
of Teeth, and the Inner Mongolian Youth
Choir. Korean choirs are exquisitely trained,
not only in singing, but in stage presence
– what they wear and how they move; and
Wonju Civic Chorale gave a taste of the
depth and breadth of Korean music, sung
with a wonderful combination of Korean
and western sound. The US ensemble
Roomful of Teeth overwhelmed with their
thoroughly 21st-century re-imagining of
a cappella vocal music. Their stated mission
is to ‘mine the expressive potential of the
human voice’, which they put into action
through yodels, grunts, audible exhalations,
drones and other techniques from a wide
variety of musical traditions. Their singing
is fiercely beautiful and bravely, utterly
DAVID BECKINGHAM
PRINT ONLY – CODE: 3CH15
UK: £21.60 | Non-UK: £29.60
DIGITAL ONLY – CODE: 3CH15D
UK: £8.49 | Non-UK: £8.49
PRINT + DIGITAL – CODE: 3CH15B
UK: £25.60 | Non-UK: £33.60
*
VocalEssence (USA) and Sofia
Vokalensemble (Sweden) join
three South Korean choirs for
the closing concert
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014 CHOIR & ORGAN
37
14/10/2014 10:49:30
54
CHOIR & ORGAN NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2014
CO_0614_F_Sidney Sussex T.indd 54
maker, one of whose instruments probably in part
inspired the composition of Brandenburg Concerto
no.5. Pride and joy, however, is the new meantone
chamber organ, the first European instrument
from US builders Taylor & Boody. With its exquisite
casework and finish, glowing wood, carvings incorporating college emblems – the crest and porcupine
from the Sidney family crest – and gilded decorations
on the facing pipework, the organ itself is a work of
great beauty. Standing proud against the Chapel wall,
it moves easily to a central position for playing, when
the screens are opened to allow the pipes to speak,
revealing wings of deep blue edged with gold. Yet its
sound is even more celebrated. With just seven stops,
it provides a warm, seductive 8ft Gedackt, a nasal
regal stop (Vox Virginia), that transports us straight
back to an earlier era of kingship, and a surprisingly
full chorus that resonates satisfactorily around the
Chapel. It has a short octave to provide the necessary bass notes and is tuned ‘high’ at A = 466. It has
already been launched with recitals by Stephen Farr
and Christian Wilson and recorded on a new CD
with Farr (The Virtuoso Organist: Masterworks from
Tudor and Jacobean England, to be released early in
2015 on Resonus Classics).
Why meantone? Skinner admits it is a decision he
has already had to defend in the face of social media
criticism. ‘This is the tuning of the Tudor, Jacobean
and Restoration period, and so is absolutely right for
that repertoire,’ he explains. ‘That music is the focus
of our Friday Choral Evensong, and the organ has
transformed our performance.’ Technically tuned
to fifth-comma meantone, the organ provides pure
3rds, with 4ths and 5ths as nearly pure as possible;
in all the common keys of the period (up to two
sharps and flats) it offers a sweetness that our ears
– flattened by the blandness of equal temperament
– have grown unaccustomed to. For Skinner, it
prompts his singers to listen attentively to the colour
of their 3rds and tuning in general, and he sweeps
aside any criticism: ‘If some of the wolf 3rds “howl”
in later repertoire, then the organist simply plays an
open 5th,’ he declares, ‘just as they did at the time!’
Completing an enviable quartet of Chapel instruments, a new organ from Dutch builders Flentrop
has recently been contracted and is due for delivery
in 2016. With around 30 stops and with two or three
manuals (the specification is now to be finalised in
the light of the chamber organ), this instrument
will accompany the more traditional 19th- and
20th-century Anglican music of the Sunday Choral
Evensong and provide a recital organ for a wide
range of repertoire. As Skinner points out, these four
instruments offer the basis for historically informed
performance of music from the Tudor period right
www.choirandorgan.com
14/10/2014 11:05:30
Yet Rütti now brings to this commission a
wealth of experience of writing for English
choirs, from the BBC Singers to the Bach
Choir, and is fascinated by the purity of
their singing. ‘In my inner ear I hear the
angel-like voices of King’s College Choir
– you know, in the German language
Engel (angel) and englisch have the same
roots!’, he says, half-jokingly. Having met
with Cleobury and attended Evensong at
King’s, musical ideas are already forming
in his mind.
In the summer, work begins on the
new piece. Sometimes, a fertile musical
imagination sees the composer checking
back with Cleobury on unexpected
details. So in 1998 Giles Swayne sought
permission for the addition of an
obbligato flute, and in 2003 Cleobury
www.choirandorgan.com
CO_0614_F_Blackwell Kings Cambridge T.indd 27
‘A carol expresses the most mysterious fact of
our religion in the simplicity of a children’s song’
agreed Harrison Birtwistle could express
his carol’s joie de vivre with stamping,
clapping and shouting. For Rütti, this
was the moment to settle the choice of
text and begin to refine aspects of the
composition. He chose the 12th-century
carol text ‘Verbum caro factum est’. ‘It
has a refrain,’ he explains, ‘which Stephen
and I agreed in March was something we
both wanted, and this refrain makes me
think of the French trouvères and German
Minnesänger of the Middle Ages, offering
their tributes to an adored noble court
lady.’ He also decided to make the work
accompanied. ‘Initially I thought to make
it a cappella, since nearly all my previous
carols are accompanied,’ he says, ‘but as I
began writing some rhythmical patterns
emerged separate from the choir parts and,
well, who can resist writing for the organ
in King’s Chapel!’
As the new academic year begins in
the autumn, Cleobury is keen to see his
new carol. This is partly to meet publicity
deadlines, but also from a natural curiosity
and to help plan rehearsals, which begin
in earnest from early December. Once
the choir has the notes under their
belts, Cleobury likes the composer to
attend a rehearsal, so that aspects of the
November/december 2014 choir & organ
27
14/10/2014 10:32:58
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12 C&O_3choirs_130.5x92.indd
The Cathedral
Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton20/01/2015
Monier-Williams
Festival
PROGRAMME
© Alex Ramsay
Hereford 2015
SATURDAY
25 july
General booking opens on 13 April
0845 652 1823
Opening Service
Song of the Hero
11.30 am Hereford Cathedral
Entrance is by ticket only (free of charge)
2.30 pm Holy Trinity Church
£25, £20
Purcell Te Deum in D
Handel With cheerful notes
Handel Hallelujah
Handel Music for the Royal Fireworks
Vaughan Williams Four Last Songs
Tim Torry The Face of Grief
Howells Four Songs
Rhian Samuel A swift radiant morning
festival commission: world premiere
Elgar Sea Pictures
Hereford Cathedral Choir
Three Choirs Festival Chorus
Corelli Ensemble
Peter Dyke organ
Geraint Bowen conductor
RCO Young Performers Recital 1
12.45 pm Holy Trinity Church
£10 unreserved
James Bowstead organ
The first of our young artists lunchtime concert
series in Holy Trinity Church features a soloist
chosen by the Royal College of Organists.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 12.15 pm.
Ticket £5.
Roderick Williams baritone
Susie Allan piano
In the first of two festival appearances, Roderick
Williams revisits some of the themes from last
year’s First World War centenary commemoration.
His recital focuses on the grief of those left behind
when armies went off to fight, and includes a
festival commission from the Welsh composer
Rhian Samuel, a setting of poetry by C H Sorley,
who was killed in action in 1915.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 1.30 pm.
Ticket £5.
Supported by Michael Guittard, Harry Prince
and The Alan Cadbury Charitable Trust
Supported by Father Michael Thomas
Festival Reception
6.00 pm Bishop’s Palace
£10
Sarah Connolly
Neal Davies
Roderick Williams
14
© Benjamin Ealovega
© Peter Warren
The Friends of Hereford Three Choirs Festival
invite you to join them for
drinks and canapés
before the evening
concert.
www.3choirs.org
SUNDAY
26 july
The Dream of Gerontius ★
Orchestral Eucharist
7.45 pm Hereford Cathedral
£49, £45, £27, £20, £15, £7
10.30 am Hereford Cathedral
General booking opens on 13 April
Elgar The Dream of Gerontius
Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano
Peter Auty tenor
Neal Davies bass
Three Choirs Festival Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra
Geraint Bowen conductor
Our evening concert series begins with the
work which has been most closely associated with
the Three Choirs Festival for the past 100 years.
Sarah Connolly joins us to reprise the role of the
Angel for which she was acclaimed on last year’s
Chandos recording.
Supported by the Friends of Hereford Three
Choirs Festival and the Friends of Hereford
Cathedral
Haydn Paukenmesse
Mozart Ave verum corpus
Mozart Laudate Dominum
Lucy Bowen soprano
Jeanette Ager mezzo-soprano
James Oxley tenor
David Stout baritone
Hereford Cathedral Choir
Philharmonia Orchestra
Geraint Bowen conductor
RCO Young Performers Recital 2
12.45 pm Holy Trinity Church
£10 unreserved
John Bachelor organ
Sarah Connolly supported by Peter and Hilary Hillier
The second of our young artists lunchtime
concert series features another soloist chosen
by the Royal College of Organists.
Fireworks Reception
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 12.15 pm.
Ticket £5.
10.00 pm Bishop’s Palace
£16 including refreshments
Supported by Father Michael Thomas
Hereford Cathedral Perpetual Trust invites you to
celebrate the first night of our 300th anniversary
festival in spectacular style.
Keep the Home Fires Burning
10.15 pm All Saints Church
£15, £12, £10
Audrey Palmer mezzo-soprano
Simon McEnery tenor
David Rhind-Tutt piano
This musical commemoration of the First World
War features classic popular songs of the early
20th century. Some highlight the poignant weight
of wartime sorrow; others show the dark humour
of war; some are touching love songs. The
programme also includes songs from a slightly
later era by Coward, Porter, Gershwin and Berlin.
James Oxley
Jeanette Ager
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
15
General booking opens on 13 April
0845 652 1823
Summer Music
Turangalîla ★
2.30 pm Courtyard Centre for the Arts
£25
7.45 pm Hereford Cathedral
£45, £41, £27, £20, £15, £7
Reicha Quintet in B flat
Barber Summer Music
Ligeti Six Bagatelles
Jim Parker Mississippi Five
Debussy Syrinx
Krzysztof Penderecki Prelude for solo clarinet
Wagner Prelude & Liebestod from Tristan
und Isolde
Messiaen Turangalîla-Symphonie
Ensemble 360
Sheffield-based Ensemble 360 is a flexible
grouping of acclaimed players who can perform
in many different permutations, combining
virtuosic playing with relaxed presentation. This
afternoon they bring us seasonal music for wind
quintet by the Czech Anton Reicha and the
American composer Samuel Barber.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 1.30 pm.
Ticket £5.
Supported by the Finzi Circle
Jac van Steen supported by Elizabeth and
Simon Allen
5.00 pm Courtyard Centre for the Arts
£8
Charlie Chaplin’s film The Tramp is 100 years old;
come and see a screening at the Courtyard.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 4.15 pm.
Ticket £5.
Choral Evensong
Hereford Cathedral Voluntary Choir
William Fox organ
Peter Dyke conductor
16
Lay Clerks in Concert
10.15 pm All Saints Church
£15, £12, £10
Who knows what delights the gentlemen of
Hereford Cathedral Choir have in store for
us in their traditional late-night performance
of secular repertoire, always a favourite with
festival audiences.
© Ben Ealovega and David Shapiro
5.30 pm Hereford Cathedral
To include the premiere of the winning
introit from the inaugural Three Choirs
Festival Choral Composition Competition.
Prepare to be blown away by the unique soundworld of Messiaen’s extraordinary TurangalîlaSymphonie in a rare performance – and the first
at the Three Choirs Festival – of this vast work,
that involves all the resources the Philharmonia
Orchestra can summon. It’s preceded by the
prelude and searing apotheosis from the epochmaking opera by Wagner, whose central theme of
romantic love and death was its direct inspiration.
Supported by the Chairman’s Circle
The Tramp
Humphrey Clucas Responses
Raymond Warren Bristol Service
Anthony Piccolo The Key
Langlais Fête
Alwyn Mellor soprano
Valerie Hartmann-Claverie ondes martenot
Steven Osborne piano
Philharmonia Orchestra
Jac van Steen conductor
Ensemble 360
Monday
27 july
General booking opens on 13 April
www.3choirs.org
Breakfast with Bach
Agincourt
9.30 am Left Bank
£12 to include continental breakfast
11.15 am Left Bank
£10
Join Matthew Brook, James Oxley and Roderick
Williams in a discussion of the St Matthew
Passion over coffee and croissants. Approaches
to the interpretation of the characters of the
Evangelist, Christ and Pilate have changed
markedly over time and vary considerably from
singer to singer. This is a unique opportunity
to hear these three world-renowned Bach singers
in conversation.
Professor Andrew Kirkman speaker
The first of our anniversary talks looks at
Henry V’s victory over the French at Agincourt,
in October 1415. Andrew Kirkman, Peyton and
Barber Professor of Music at the University
of Birmingham and Director of the Binchois
Consort, will draw on his own specialist research
to link the circumstances of the battle to the
music the English and Continental armies of
the time would have known.
Requiem for 500 Years
Three Choirs Festival Society
Lunch
11.00 am St Francis Xavier Church
£25 unreserved
Dust and Ashes: Requiem for 500 Years
12.30 pm Left Bank
£26
Programme to include:
Brumel Missa pro Defunctis
Plainchant sequences
Dufay Lamentatio Sanctae Matris Ecclesiae
Constantinopolitanae
Gabriel Jackson On the bridge over the
narrow river
Ockeghem Mort, tu as navré ton dart
This annual event is open to Three Choirs
Festival Society members only.
RCO Young Performers Recital 3
12.45 pm Holy Trinity Church
£10 unreserved
Orlando Consort
Donal McCann organ
The Orlando Consort’s exploration of the
Requiem Mass juxtaposes acknowledged
masterpieces of medieval times with the works
of living composers who have applied medieval
techniques in their music. The music is
complemented by readings from sources
including early English documents, John Donne,
Sir Thomas Wyatt, Helen Thomas (the widow
of poet Edward Thomas, killed in the First World
War) and modern war correspondents Feargal
Keane and Daniel Counihan.
The final organ recital of our young artists
lunchtime concert series features a third soloist
chosen by the Royal College of Organists.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 12.15 pm.
Ticket £5.
Supported by Father Michael Thomas
© Eric Richmond
Supported by The Very Reverend Michael Tavinor
Orlando Consort
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
17
General booking opens on 13 April
0845 652 1823
Chichester and Chilcott ★
Three Choirs Festival Society AGM
2.30 pm Hereford Cathedral
£26, £21, £16, £11, £5, £1
6.30 pm Left Bank
Bob Chilcott Requiem
Bernstein Chichester Psalms
Morning Heroes ★
Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir
Christopher Allsop organ
Peter Nardone conductor
Ahead of Wednesday’s first broadcast
performance by the Three Cathedral Choirs of
Bob Chilcott’s new evening service, our TCF
Youth Choir performs his beautiful Requiem
published in 2010. This is paired with the famous
setting of Hebrew psalm texts commissioned in
1965 for a festival in Chichester Cathedral by
its then Dean, The Very Revd Walter Hussey.
Supported by The Perry Family Charitable Trust
Arthur Bliss Society Tea and Talk
4.00 pm Left Bank
£15
Andrew Burn, Chairman of The Bliss Trust, gives
a talk entitled ‘Now, trumpeter, for thy close: an
introduction to Bliss’s Morning Heroes’.
Supported by The Bliss Trust
Choral Evensong
5.30 pm Hereford Cathedral
Ayleward Responses
Greene Evening Service in C
Purcell O Lord God of Hosts
Purcell Voluntary for Double Organ
Three Cathedral Choirs
Jonathan Hope organ
Adrian Partington conductor
18
7.45 pm Hereford Cathedral
£45, £41, £27, £20, £15, £7
Sibelius Symphony No 5
Bliss Morning Heroes
Samuel West narrator
Three Choirs Festival Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra
Sir Andrew Davis conductor
This choral symphony by Arthur Bliss, dedicated
‘to the Memory of my brother Francis Kennard
Bliss and all other Comrades killed in battle’,
continues our First World War commemoration
begun with last year’s premiere of Torsten Rasch’s
A Foreign Field. Premiered at the Norwich Festival
in 1930, it sets texts from Homer’s Iliad and
poems by Walt Whitman, Wilfred Owen, Li Tai
Po and Robert Nichols; the composer said that
writing it helped to exorcise the nightmare
memories of his own wartime experiences.
Supported by The Bliss Trust and The Music
Reprieval Trust
Samuel West supported by Gabbs Solicitors
Sir Andrew Davis supported by Pamela White
Golden Apples of the Sun
10.15 pm All Saints Church
£15, £12, £10
Juice
The three female singers of Juice are at the
forefront of the UK’s experimental/classical
scene, performing new vocal music which
draws on a wide variety of genres including jazz,
folk, improvisation and theatre. Their concert
programmes are fluid and full of surprises;
‘Golden Apples of the Sun’ may contain works
by Gabriel Jackson, Tarik O’Regan, Cecilia
McDowall or James MacMillan – or it may not!
TUESDAY
28 july
General booking opens on 13 April
www.3choirs.org
Steven Osborne
Three Choirs Festival Young
Musicians of 2014
11.00 am Holy Trinity Church
£25, £20
12.45 pm Holy Trinity Church
£10 unreserved
Schubert Sonata in B flat D 960
Beethoven Sonatas Op. 90 and Op. 101
Emily Garland soprano
Dominic Sedgwick baritone
Steven Osborne piano
Ranging from ethereal delicacy to barn-storming
power, the ‘unique magic’ of Scottish pianist
Steven Osborne’s sound was cited among the
qualities that earned him the Royal Philharmonic
Society’s Instrumentalist of the Year Award in
2013. All these are sure to be on display in his
performances of Schubert’s last sonata and two
masterpieces of Beethoven’s middle-to-late period.
The joint winners of Dame Felicity Lott’s
competitive singing masterclass at last year’s
Worcester Three Choirs Festival in recital.
Both are studying on postgraduate opera
courses at London conservatoires.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 12.15 pm.
Ticket £5.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 10.00 am.
Ticket £5.
Elgar Birthplace Visit and Talk
Henry IV (Part I and II)
2.00 pm Elgar Birthplace Museum
Lower Broadheath, Worcester WR2 6RH
£15 including tea and coach
11.00 am Bishop’s Palace Garden
£16, £10.50 for Under-16s
Michael Trott of the Elgar Society will deliver a
talk entitled ‘What do we mean by Elgarian?’ As a
self-taught musician, Elgar was not shaped by the
musical tradition that gave us Stanford and Parry,
but by his own close study of scores by Wagner,
Brahms and others. How did this influence his
compositional style? There will be a chance to
look round the museum.
Festival Players
In 2012 the Gloucestershire-based Festival
Players took over the UK’s longest established
outdoor touring Shakespeare company, Theatre
Set-Up. The first production of the new-look
company at this year’s Three Choirs presents the
story of the contrasting approaches to imminent
war of Henry IV and his son Prince Hal.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 12.15 pm.
Three Choirs @ 300
11.15 am Left Bank
£10
In today’s anniversary talk Dominic Jewel, chief
executive of the Three Choirs Festival, looks at
our own past, present and future, drawing
anecdotes from the past 300 years of music
meetings in Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester
to reveal how much has changed yet so much
remains the same as this very special event
prepares to enter its fourth century.
© Decca / Paul Stuart
Dominic Jewel speaker
V0ces8
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
19
General booking opens on 13 April
0845 652 1823
Three Centuries in One Afternoon
Evening Prayer (said)
2.30 pm St Francis Xavier Church
£25 unreserved
5.30 pm Hereford Cathedral
Gibbons O clap your hands
Ola Gjeilo Ubi caritas
Tavener Mother of God, here I stand
Morley/Purcell Second dirge anthem/Thou
knowest, Lord
Sullivan The long day closes
Britten Hymn to St Cecilia
Alec Roth new work
festival commission: world premiere
Stanford Beati quorum via
Walford Davies God be in my head
Pearsall Lay a garland
St Matthew Passion ★
Selection of jazz and pop arrangements
to be announced from the stage
Voces8
Vocal ensemble Voces8 have been topping the
classical charts in recent years with immaculately
produced recordings, giving a modern polish
to repertoire that has been familiar to choristers
down the ages. Making their Three Choirs debut,
they intersperse tracks from their latest album
Lux with repertoire chosen to reflect the festival’s
history and a new work by Alec Roth
commissioned for the occasion.
The Wulstan Atkins Lecture
5.00 pm Left Bank
£10
Timothy Day, former Director of the British
Library Sound Archive and an authority on the
recorded sound of English cathedral choirs, now
lives in Plas Gwyn, Hereford, a former home of
Edward Elgar. In the Wulstan Atkins Lecture,
given annually in memory of Elgar’s godson and
great friend, he discusses historic performance,
Bach and the Three Choirs Festival.
Supported by Katharine O’Carroll
and Robert Atkins
20
7.00 pm Hereford Cathedral
£45, £41, £27, £20, £15, £7
Bach St Matthew Passion
James Oxley Evangelist
Matthew Brook Christus
Elizabeth Watts soprano
William Towers counter-tenor
Anthony Gregory tenor
Roderick Williams baritone
Three Cathedral Choirs
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Geraint Bowen conductor
The period-instrument OAE makes its Three
Choirs debut accompanying the boys and men
of our Three Cathedral Choirs in one of the
greatest masterpieces of the choral repertoire,
with a stellar line-up of soloists, under the baton
of our artistic director, Geraint Bowen.
Supported by Angela Day
Gwilym Simcock
10.15 pm All Saints Church
£15, £12, £10
Gwilym Simcock piano
Mike Walker guitar
The second of our relaxed late night events in
All Saints features one of the UK’s most popular
jazz pianists. Classically-trained Gwilym Simcock
was the first jazz performer to be a BBC New
Generation Artist, and has composed music for
broadcast and for the stage as well as for his own
ensembles. Tonight he’s joined by Salford-born
guitarist Mike Walker, with whom he regularly
performs as ‘The Impossible Gentlemen’.
WEDNESDAY
29 july
General booking opens on 13 April
www.3choirs.org
Elgar Society Talk and Lunch
Waterloo
10.45 am Left Bank
£35 talk and lunch £14 talk only £23 buffet only
11.15 am Left Bank
£10
Join the Elgar Society for the annual talk, given
in this tercentenary year of the Three Choirs
Festival by the Society’s President, cellist and
now conductor Julian Lloyd Webber. Entitled
‘Elgar in the 21st century’, the talk will be
illustrated with musical examples and followed
at 12.45 pm by lunch.
The Battle of Waterloo in June 1815 brought
an end to 23 years of European warfare and
prevented Napoleon I from fulfilling his dream
of making France the continent’s most powerful
nation. The third of our ‘15’ anniversary talks sets
in context this decisive moment in British history,
as significant in its way as the defeat of the
Spanish Armada or the Battle of Britain.
The Cuckow: Europe in 1715
Young Artists Recital 1
11.00 am Leominster Priory
£25, £20, £15
12.45 pm Holy Trinity Church
£10 unreserved
Dall’Abaco Concerto Grosso IV in A Op. 2
Bononcini Overture to Il trionfo di Camilla
Valentini Concerto Grosso XI in A minor Op. 7
Telemann Concerto in G for four violins
TWV 40:201
Vivaldi Violin Concerto in A ‘The Cuckow’ RV 335
Vivaldi Concerto in B minor for four violins
RV 580
Mathilde Milwidsky violin
Today’s recitalist is a holder of one of the
Philharmonia Orchestra’s Martin Musical
Scholarship Awards 2015.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 12.15 pm.
Ticket £5.
Supported by Father Michael Thomas
La Serenissima
Adrian Chandler director/violin
As You Like It
The centrepiece of this concert is Vivaldi’s
concerto ‘The Cuckow’, which was a particular
favourite in England. An advertisement of 1717
in The Post Man for a new edition of the concerto
described it as ‘the choicest of all his works’.
RV 580 is the tenth in Vivaldi’s best-selling
set of concertos L’estro armonico and inspired
Bach to arrange it for four harpsichords.
La Serenissima’s programme includes lively
works by some lesser-known composers of
the Italian baroque.
2.00 pm Bishop’s Palace Garden
£16, £10.50 for Under-16s
Festival Players
For their second performance this year
the Gloucester-based Festival Players offer
Shakespeare’s comedy of manners As You Like It,
a witty exploration of love, loyalty and friendship.
Supported by the Pippin Trust
© Riccardo Alchaide
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 9.30 am.
Ticket £7.50.
Adrian Chandler
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
21
General booking opens on 13 April
0845 652 1823
From My Life
Missa Solemnis ★
2.30 pm Leominster Priory
£25, £20, £15
7.45 pm Hereford Cathedral
£45, £41, £27, £20, £15, £7
Haydn String quartet in G Op. 54 No 1
Smetana String quartet No 1 ‘From my Life’
Beethoven String quartet in C minor Op. 18 No 4
Beethoven Missa Solemnis
Wihan Quartet
Celebrating their 30th birthday this year, the
Wihan Quartet from the Czech Republic have
chosen a semi-autobiographical work by their
great compatriot Smetana as the centrepiece
of this afternoon’s programme. ‘From my Life’
was written after Smetana, like Beethoven, had
gone deaf, and the ringing that he experienced
in his ears is represented in music in the last
movement of the piece.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 1.00 pm.
Ticket £7.50.
Supported by Katharine Wedgbury
Choral Evensong
3.30 pm Hereford Cathedral
Philip Moore Responses (set III)
Neil Cox Keep me as the apple of an eye
Bob Chilcott Three Choirs Service
festival commission: first broadcast performance
Malcolm Archer Veni, Sancte Spiritus
first broadcast performance
Jonathan Dove The Dancing Pipes
Three Cathedral Choirs
Peter Dyke organ
Geraint Bowen conductor
The congregation is asked to be seated by 3.15 pm.
This is a live broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and late
admittance will not be possible.
The commissioned work by Bob Chilcott is
supported by The Frank Clarke-Whitfeld Trust
and Clare Wichbold
22
Eleanor Dennis soprano
Jennifer Johnston mezzo-soprano
Mark le Brocq tenor
Marcus Farnsworth bass
Three Choirs Festival Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra
Adrian Partington conductor
Written over several years at around the same
time as his ‘Choral’ Symphony, Beethoven’s
virtuosic Mass in D, known as the ‘Missa
Solemnis’, was the closest he came to an
expression of religious faith. Full of emotion
and drama, it represents a deeply personal
journey on a theatrical scale.
Supported by Richard Arenschieldt
and Hereford City Council
Celtic Song
10.15 pm All Saints Church
£15, £12, £10
Bardic Trio
Jamie MacDougall tenor
Sharron Griffiths harp
Matthew McAllister guitar
Commissioned works from composers such as
Edward Maguire and Arturo Marquez alongside
specially-created arrangements of Mexican,
Scottish, Welsh and Irish songs feature in
the repertoire of this innovative trio. Jamie
MacDougall’s speaking voice may be as familiar
to audiences as his singing voice; he combines
his performing career with presenting classical
concerts for BBC Radio 3.
THURSDAY
30 july
General booking opens on 13 April
www.3choirs.org
Poets and Princes: An
Entertainment
Finzi Friends Lunch and Lecture
1.00 pm Left Bank
£15
11.00 am Dore Abbey
£55 including coach travel and lunch
‘A Soldier of the Great War: Francis Purcell Warren’
Rolf Jordan talks about an outstanding musician
who lost his life on the Somme. Warren was both
a cherished friend and an inspiration to Howells
and Gurney and his music was championed by
Finzi. This event is open to all.
Sir Roy Strong speaker
Charlotte Asprey actor
Gareth Rees-Roberts lute
In the beautiful setting of Dore Abbey in the
Golden Valley, Sir Roy Strong takes us on a
journey through the lives and times of some
of the most memorable kings and queens of
England, from Richard II to Edward VII, in their
own words and those of their contemporaries,
with occasional observations by the inimitable
Messrs Sellar & Yeatman and appropriate
musical interludes.
The Rite of Spring ★
2.30 pm Hereford Cathedral
£34, £29, £24, £15, £10, £5
Dukas La Péri
Stravinsky Le sacre du printemps
(The Rite of Spring)
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 9.30 am.
National Youth Orchestra of Wales
Paul Daniel conductor
There will be a post-lunch guided tour of
Dore Abbey, limited to 60 people. Tickets £5.
Witnessing a youth orchestra encountering for
the first time the power and drama of one of
classical music’s most ground-breaking works
is always a thrilling experience. This concert
in which the cream of Wales’s young musicians
tackle Stravinsky’s complex and demanding score
looks set to be a highlight of our festival. ‘The
Rite’ is preceded by the last substantial work
by the French composer Paul Dukas, his poém
dansée La Péri.
The Jacobite Uprising
11.15 am Left Bank
£10
Robert Howarth speaker
Today’s ‘15’ anniversary talk looks at the rebellion
in Scotland provoked by the death of Queen Anne
and the accession of George I. Conductor Robert
Howarth, a specialist in early classical repertoire,
will set the event in a musical context.
Supported by The Perry Family Charitable Trust
and the Purcell Circle
Young Artists Recital 2
12.45 pm Holy Trinity Church
£10
Today’s recitalist is a holder of one of the
Philharmonia Orchestra’s Martin Musical
Scholarship Awards 2015.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 12.15 pm.
Ticket £5.
Supported by Father Michael Thomas
© marcusfarnsworth.com
Victoria Principe piano
Marcus Farnsworth
Charlotte Asprey
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
23
General booking opens on 13 April
0845 652 1823
Friends’ Garden Party
Lux Aeterna ★
4.00 pm Bishop’s Palace Garden
£10
7.45 pm Hereford Cathedral
£45, £41, £27, £20, £15, £7
Join the Friends of Hereford Three Choirs
Festival for the annual garden party, open to all.
Nielsen Hymnus Amoris
Mathias Lux Aeterna
Choral Evensong
5.30 pm Hereford Cathedral Tallis Responses
Wood Great Lord of Lords
Wood Evening Service in E
Walker I will lift up mine eyes
Rheinberger Agitato (Sonata No 11)
Three Cathedral Choirs
Peter Dyke organ
Geraint Bowen conductor
Inspired by a Titian painting on the theme of a
jealous husband which the composer and his wife
saw on their honeymoon, the highly romantic
Hymnus Amoris sets a Danish text which was
translated into Latin because Nielsen felt it would
be easier to sing and would convey the universal
emotion of human love more effectively. Lux
Aeterna by the Welsh composer William Mathias,
who died in 1992, was premiered at the Hereford
Three Choirs Festival in 1982.
© Benjamin Ealovega
© Gisela Schenker
Jennifer Johnston
Sarah Fox soprano
Jennifer Johnston mezzo-soprano
Claudia Huckle contralto
Robert Murray tenor
David Stout baritone
Barnaby Rea bass
Choristers of the Three Cathedral Choirs
Three Choirs Festival Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra
Peter Nardone conductor
Supported by The Elmley Foundation
Amy Roberts
David Stout
10.15 pm All Saints Church
£15, £12, £10
Amy Roberts
Richard Exall Quintet
© Dario Acosta
Join Amy Roberts and the Richard Exall Quintet
for this evening’s session at All Saints and find
out why they were voted Band of the Year 2014
by Rochdale Jazz Society. Amy is a charismatic
performer on flute (her main instrument),
clarinet and saxophone. She was the first female
musician to join the Big Chris Barber Band
and is a mentor for young jazz musicians in
Worcestershire.
Claudia Huckle
24
Amy Roberts
Friday
31 July
British Music Society Symposium
and AGM
10.15 am – 3.30 pm Left Bank
£22 including tea/coffee
A one-day workshop with keynote talks on Arthur
Bliss and the influence of Sibelius on British
music. BMS president Raphael Wallfisch gives a
short cello recital as another highlight to the day.
CDs from the BMS/Naxos catalogue and BMS
publications will be on sale too.
Celebrity Organ Recital ★
10.30 am Hereford Cathedral
£21
Mendelssohn (arr. Best) Overture to St Paul
Bach Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor BWV 582
Mozart Adagio and Allegro in F minor K 594
Franck Choral no 2 in B minor
Anthony Powers O Gott, du frommer Gott
festival commission: world premiere
Cecilia McDowall Wo Gott der Herr nicht
bei uns hält
Lemare Concert Fantasia
Dupré Variations sur un Noël
John Scott organ
After 26 years at St Paul’s Cathedral, London,
in 2004 John Scott moved to New York where
he is Organist and Director of Music at St
Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue. He has described
the Willis organ of Hereford Cathedral as one of
his favourite instruments; today’s programme of
music from three centuries has been chosen to
display its magnificent character and capabilities.
It includes a new work by Anthony Powers
commissioned as part of the international
Orgelbüchlein Project, which aims to fill in
the 118 missing pieces from Bach’s ‘Little
Organ Book’ for which the composer had noted
the titles but never completed the music. Cecilia
McDowall’s Wo Gott der Herr nicht bei uns hält was
written for the Orgelbüchlein Project in 2011.
General booking opens on 13 April
www.3choirs.org
Magna Carta
11.15 am Left Bank
£10
Canon Chris Pullin speaker
Hereford Cathedral holds the finest and most
important version of Magna Carta, the revision
of 1217 issued by King John’s son, Henry III.
In our final anniversary talk, the cathedral’s
Chancellor will discuss this and another priceless
Hereford treasure, the sole surviving copy of
King John’s Writ, a letter sent by royal officials
across England after the king’s meeting with
his barons at Runnymede.
Young Artists Recital 3
12.45 pm Holy Trinity Church
£10 unreserved
Rosanna Rolton harp
Today’s recitalist is a holder of one of the
Philharmonia Orchestra’s Martin Musical
Scholarship Awards 2015.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 12.15 pm.
Ticket £5.
Supported by Father Michael Thomas
Three Choirs Festival Society Outing
2.30–5.30 pm Hereford Museum Resource and
Learning Centre, 58 Friars Street Hereford HR4 0AS
£10
Explore the collections of Hereford Museum
not normally seen by the public, with tours of
the fine & decorative arts and social history stores,
including Georgian costumes and other items
relevant to the early Three Choirs Festivals.
This event is open to Three Choirs Festival Society
members only, and limited to 40 people. A coach will
be available to take people to the resource centre in
Friars Street. NB This is a different location from
Hereford City Museum itself.
The coach will depart from Broad Street at 2.00 pm.
Ticket £5.
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
25
General booking opens on 13 April
0845 652 1823
Natalie Clein
Choral Evensong
2.30 pm Holy Trinity Church
£25, £20
5.30 pm Hereford Cathedral
Debussy Sonata for Cello and Piano GyÖrgy Kurtág Hommage à John Cage, from
Signs, Games and Messages GyÖrgy Kurtág Az Hit... GyÖrgy Kurtág Shadows Britten Cello Sonata in C Op. 65 Rachmaninov Cello Sonata in G minor Op. 19
Natalie Clein cello
Håvard Gimse piano
‘Natalie Clein is a comprehensively gifted
player who performs these pieces with an ideal
combination of warm-hearted expressiveness
and astonishing technical ability,’ said one reviewer
of her recording of two Saint-Saëns cello concertos
released last year on Hyperion. Vividly
remembered for her winning performance as
a 16-year-old in the BBC Young Musician of the
Year competition, she has more than fulfilled
her early promise. This programme displays both
her commitment to contemporary music and her
passionate approach to romantic repertoire.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 1.30 pm.
Ticket £5.
Deans’ Croquet Match
3.30 pm Deanery Garden
£7.50
Enjoy a refreshing cup of tea in one of Hereford
Cathedral’s beautiful gardens as you watch the
Deans of the three cathedrals square up to one
another on the croquet lawn.
Leighton Responses
Howells Gloucester Service
Ireland Greater Love
Vierne Allegro risoluto (Symphony No 4)
Three Cathedral Choirs
Peter Dyke organ
Peter Nardone conductor
Verdi Requiem ★
7.45 pm Hereford Cathedral £49, £45, £27, £20, £15, £7
Verdi Requiem
Katharine Broderick soprano
Catherine Wyn-Rogers contralto
Gwyn Hughes Jones tenor
Alastair Miles bass
Three Choirs Festival Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra
Geraint Bowen conductor
All the drama and passion of Verdi’s famous operas
are present in his setting of the Requiem Mass,
written in memory of the Italian poet and novelist
Alessandro Manzoni and first performed in 1874.
From the hushed opening to the cataclysmic
Dies irae, this is an evening sure to remain in the
memory as we bring down the curtain on this
year’s concerts with the Philharmonia.
Supported by Bernard Day
Tord Gustavsen Quartet
10.15 pm All Saints Church
£20, £15, £10
© Hans Fredrik Asbjornsen
Pianist Tord Gustavsen is a leading figure on the
Norwegian jazz scene and tours worldwide with
a variety of ensembles. The cool, contemporary
elegance of his Scandinavian roots is infused with
the energy of gospel and Caribbean music. He is
sure to bring our late-night series at All Saints to
a laid-back close.
Tord Gustavsen
26
Saturday
1 AUGUST
General booking opens on 13 April
www.3choirs.org
Summer Saxophones
Song of the Widow
11.00 am Courtyard Centre for the Arts
£15
2.30 pm Holy Trinity Church
£25, £20
Ferio Saxophone Quartet
Purcell Three Divine Hymns
Domenick Argento Equal Mistress
Torsten Rasch A Welsh Night
festival commission: world premiere
Novello Glamorous Night
Gurney Three Cabaret Songs
Howells Cabaret Song
Wood Roses of Picardy
Formed in 2012 by graduates of the Royal College
of Music, Ferio aims to break the mould of a
traditional saxophone quartet by collaborating
with composers to create original concepts and
performing their own arrangements to develop
a wide-ranging and varied portfolio of music. Join
them for a chilled Saturday morning session of
music from the lighter end of their repertoire.
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 10.00 am.
Ticket £5.
300th Anniversary Bach Organ
Masterclass with Henry Fairs
Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano
Joseph Middleton piano
The centrepiece of Sarah Connolly’s recital is
a sequence of texts by the Welsh poet of the
Second World War Alun Lewis (1915–44), set to
music by the German composer Torsten Rasch
in the third of his Three Choirs commissions.
2.00 pm Lugwardine Parish Church
£10 unreserved
A coach will depart from Broad Street at 1.30 pm.
Ticket £5.
Henry Fairs is Head of Organ Studies at
Birmingham Conservatoire and a native of
Hereford who received his early musical training
as a chorister at Leominster Priory. Since winning
first prize at the Odense International Organ
Competition, his concert career has taken him
around the world. The session will focus on the
‘Great 18’ chorale settings by Bach; the new
Nicholson organ at Lugwardine is perfectly suited
to this repertoire. Participants will be advanced
students selected by prior invitation. Observers
are welcome and the afternoon concludes with
a showcase and informal adjudication.
The Torsten Rasch commission is supported
by Anwen Walker
The Gathering Wave ★
7.45 pm Hereford Cathedral
£14, £12, £9, £7, £5, £3 with half price for under-18s
Pete Churchill Echoes: A Song of Poland
festival commission: world premiere
Songs from around the world
Jenny Smith soprano
Njabulo Madlala baritone
The Gathering Wave community choir
Hilary Smallwood, Jon Watson musical directors
© Timmy Henny
Community and school choirs from Hereford city
and beyond come together for this celebration of
songs from around the world, which includes the
premiere of Echoes: A Song of Poland, a choral piece
by Pete Churchill inspired by the experiences of
Polish immigrants who settled at Foxley, near
Hereford, in 1947.
Njabulo Madlala
Supported by The Gibbs Charitable Trust and
The Very Revd Michael Tavinor
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
27
THRE
E CH
OI RS
P LUS
2015
LIVE ART
Poetry
Comedy
Talks
Story
telling
for
children
Make your
own
recording
Bands
Street
Dance
Puppet
theatre
Workshops
Tango
Walk
and Draw
Knitting
Photography
Learn
the
harmonica
Street
Dance
JAZZ
Pottery
JIVE
28
Three Choirs Plus (TC+)
is an extension of the main
Three Choirs Festival, representing
additional art forms and providing
a platform for talented young
performers. Look out for exciting
art events at the Apple Store Gallery
in Hereford, as well as workshops
on ‘The Art of ...’ Pantomime, Pottery,
Flower Arranging, Playing the
Harmonica, Knitting, Jewellery,
Architecture and Tibetan calligraphy.
There will be guided walking tours
of Elgar’s Hereford and Historic
Hereford, and a series of concerts
featuring young musicians. Enjoy
work by the poet-in-residence and
of course there are events for young
people, such as a puppet theatre and
the ‘Shakespeare Alive’ workshop.
Free events …
… include street tango, jive and
renaissance dance, bands, a
photography exhibition, pop-up
music science.
Book tickets
for TC+ workshops and talks via
the Three Choirs Festival website
before they are sold out!
The full TC+ programme will be
published in print and on the Three
Choirs Festival website at the end
of March. Tickets can be booked
online at 3choirs.org or by phone
from 0845 652 1823. The on-site
Ticket Office will open in the
Zimmerman building of Hereford
Cathedral School, Church Street,
from Wednesday 15 July.
3choirs.org
0845 652 1823
Three Choirs Plus
29
Thursday 23 July
Saturday 25 July
Sister Act
Mel and Coky Giedroyc in
conversation about the Art
of Television from both sides
of the camera
Music and … Film
Coky Giedroyc, film director,
and Nick Bicât, film composer
7.30 pm The Courtyard, £12 (concs £10)
Mel will talk from her perspective as a comedian
(The Mel and Sue Thing, French and Saunders),
as a writer (Slice, From Here to Maternity and
Downsized) and as a presenter of hit shows
such as The Great British Bake-Off, The Gift and
Mel and Sue: tales of terror, hilarity, deadlines
and how to avoid a soggy bottom. Coky will talk
about her role as the director of period dramas
such as Oliver Twist, Wuthering Heights, The
Virgin Queen and The Hour and of thrillers such
as What Remains; and about her new departure
into US TV shows which feature werewolves
and vampires. They will discuss the work they
have collaborated on – Life’s a Bitch, Spies of
Warsaw – and the upcoming dramedy
Downsized which they are writing for Channel 4.
Sister Act will be an informal chat with clips
from the two women’s work and a Q&A with
the audience.
Above: Mel and Coky Giedroyc Right: Coky Giedroyc
30
4 pm Coach House, Left Bank, £5
Coky Giedroyc has directed several films,
including Women Talking Dirty and Stella Does
Tricks; and directed numerous television dramas,
including Wuthering Heights, The Virgin Queen,
Oliver Twist, Fear of Fanny, Carrie’s War, and
three episodes of Blackpool. In 2007 she was
nominated for a Best Drama Serial BAFTA
Award for The Virgin Queen. In 2010, her
directing work for the BBC television series
The Nativity was praised by critics. She has
also directed BBC’s The Hour and What Remains
and two episodes of the 2014 Showtime horror
television series Penny Dreadful. Coky will
discuss Music and Film with BAFTA award
winning film music composer Nick Bicât.
Sunday 26 July
Tuesday 28 July
Music and … Turangalîla
Roger Nichols
Music and … Gurney
Canon Jeremy Davies
4 pm Coach House, Left Bank, £5
4 pm Coach House, Left Bank, £5
Roger Nichols, who wrote the first book in
English on Messiaen in 1975 and interviewed
the composer several times, looks at the
Turangalîla-Symphonie in the context of
the French music that preceded it and of
Messiaen’s own earlier works, with some
thoughts on the love and distaste the
symphony has variously inspired.
Ivor Gurney was both a poet and a composer,
regarded by Stanford as the most brilliant of
his students. Caught up in the carnage of
the First World War, he survived but suffered
mental illness as a result of the conflict. Jeremy
Davies reflects on Gurney’s poetry and music,
describing the originality of his work that places
him firmly amongst the finest of the poets and
musicians of the war.
Monday 27 July
From Hell to the Stars
Canon Chris Pullin
2 pm The Coach House, Left Bank, £5
Dante in an hour – which will include key
moments of The Divine Comedy read out with
music and images, plus some explanation,
some of Dante’s life story and his significance.
All this will create an experience that will be
enjoyable, fresh and engaging.
Music and … Faith
Professor Paul Mealor
4 pm Left Bank, £5
Described by Classic FM in 2012 as ‘the
nation’s favourite living composer’, Paul
Mealor has created a body of work for choir that
crosses many divides: from the deeply spiritual
(Ubi caritas, written for the Royal Wedding of
Prince William and Catherine Middleton) to the
lyrical and joyous (Wherever You Are written
for Gareth Malone and the Military Wives Choir
which became the Christmas No 1 in the 2011
pop charts) to the dark and mysterious (The
Farthest Shore written for the BBC Singers).
All, however are bound by one thing: Mealor’s
deep Christian faith. In this talk, Professor
Mealor discusses his faith and its impact upon
his music.
Wednesday 29 July
Music and … the Science
of the Singing Voice
Alan Watson
4 pm Coach House, Left Bank, £5
A scientific exploration of the nature and
properties of the human voice through sound
recordings, video clips, animations and images
with Alan Watson, senior lecturer in anatomy
and neuroscience at Cardiff University. Learn
how the larynx produces sound, how it controls
the pitch of the voice, and how the throat and
mouth are manipulated to alter vocal register
and quality. Discover how it is possible for a
singer’s voice to fill a concert hall without the
use of a microphone … but why does this
make the words harder to understand?
Experience the lost sound of the castrato
voice and the ethereal tones of the throat
singers of the Mongolian steppes.
‘Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the
secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.’
Kahlil Gibran
Three Choirs Plus
31
Thursday 30 July
Music and … the Theremin
MortonUnderwood
...in
4 pm Coach House, Left Bank, £5
JUNE
MortonUnderwood will host an event to explore
the beautiful, haunting and intriguing music
produced by the theremin – an early electronic
instrument that is played without being touched
by the musician. They will explore the timbre of
the sound produced by the theremin, which is
famously often mistaken for other instruments
and even for the human voice. They will bring
a theremin along to demonstrate how it works
and you can even have a go yourself!
Anticipate the Three Choirs
Festival with stunning
concerts in glorious venues.
Friday 31 July
ENSEMBLE OF THE IRISH
CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
Father Willis’s Masterpiece
Mark Venning and Roy Massey
12.15 pm Hereford Cathedral, £5
Mark Venning, chairman of the organ builders
Harrison & Harrison, is joined by Dr Roy Massey,
Hereford Cathedral’s Organist Emeritus, to
discuss the celebrated Willis organ and take
you on a guided tour of its 67 stops.
Threshold of Light: the Celtic
Vision in the Welsh Borders
Esther de Waal
4.00 pm Coach House, Left Bank, £5
Esther de Waal grew up in the Welsh Borders
and its landscape and buildings have been very
influential throughout her life. After writing on
monasticism for many years, she has turned in
recent years to exploring the importance of the
religious imagination and to the role of poetry,
both of which play an important role in the
Celtic tradition.
SUN 7 JUNE 7.00 PM
WYNDCLIFFE COURT, CHEPSTOW
MOZART, FINZI, BRITTEN
Daniel Bates oboe
André Swanepoel violin
Anna Cashell violin
Mark Coates-Smith viola
Peggy Nolan cello
SUN 14 JUNE 3.00 PM
BRIDGES CENTRE, MONMOUTH
WYE VALLEY CHAMBER
MUSIC ENSEMBLE
Programme TBA
SAT 21 JUNE 3.00 PM
BISHOPS PALACE, HEREFORD
BRAHMS, SCHUMANN
Rosie Biss cello
Jennifer Johnston mezzo soprano
Ben Frith piano
SUN 28 JUNE 7.00 PM
ST BRIAVELS CHURCH
RAVEL, BEETHOVEN
Clara Biss violin
Mei Yi Foo piano
TICKETS £18
www.wyevalleymusic.org.uk
TEL 01291 330020
EMAIL info@wvm.org.uk
32
Three Choirs Plus
Booking and payment information
Please read this section carefully before completing the booking form,
especially ‘Payment’.
Priority booking
Three Choirs Festival Society priority
booking opens
• for Gold Members on Monday 16 March
• for Standard Members on Monday 23 March
Ordinary booking
On Friday 10 April Society priority booking ends.
Booking opens to the general public on Monday
13 April, by telephone, post and online. All ticket
applications will be processed in order of receipt.
(Please note that this is not the Festival Ticket
Office’s postal address, for which please see
below left.)
Bookings can be made in person during the
following hours:
Wednesday 15 – Friday 17 July 10 am – 4 pm
Friday 24 July phone lines close at 4 pm
10 am – 6 pm
Saturday 25 July
Telephone booking
Call 0845 652 1823 (local rate from a UK landline)
Monday to Friday from 10.00 am to 4.00 pm.
Sunday 26 July – Saturday 1 August
Please note that all telephone bookings must
be paid for by credit or debit card at the time
of placing the order.
Online booking
To book online, please follow the links from
our website, www.3choirs.org, which uses a
secure payment facility.
Postal booking
Completed booking applications should be sent
to: Three Choirs Festival Ticket Office, 7c College
Green, Gloucester GL1 2LX
Booking in person
Bookings can be made in person from
Wednesday 15 July at the Festival Ticket Office,
which will be located in the Zimmerman Building
of Hereford Cathedral School, which is situated
in Church Street.
10.30 am – 2 pm
Monday 20 – Thursday 23 July How to book
Telephone booking will not be available on
Monday 13 or Tuesday 14 July while the Ticket
Office moves to the Zimmerman Building of
Hereford Cathedral School, which is situated
in Church Street. From Wednesday 15 July, the
telephone booking hours will be the same as
the in-person booking hours listed below.
10 am – 4 pm
Saturday 18 July
9.30 am – 7.30 pm
10 am – 7.30 pm
Payment
A voluntary donation of £2 is added to each
transaction to help further the educational work
of the festival. Please indicate on the booking
form if you wish to opt out.
Payment by cheque
Please make cheques payable to ‘Three Choirs
Festival’ and crossed ‘Account Payee only’. Please
do not write the value on the cheque but write
across the top: ‘Not more than £x’, x being an
overestimate of the total cost of the tickets for
which you have applied, plus booking fee, etc.
This figure must allow for the eventuality that we
may allocate you a ticket at a higher price should
your requested ticket zone be sold out. We will
complete the cheque with the correct amount
when the tickets you have requested (or
alternatives) have been allocated.
Payment by card
We accept Visa, Mastercard, Delta and Maestro
only. Please be ready to show your card if you
collect your tickets in person. Remember to print
in block letters the cardholder’s name and initials
and check that the address given is that of the
cardholder and known to the bank issuing the card.
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
33
Processing
Payments will not be processed until tickets
have been allocated.
Cash
Cash payment is not accepted for postal bookings.
Overseas bookings
Please arrange for payment by credit or debit card
(Visa, Mastercard, Delta or Maestro). You will be
advised by email of ticket allocations (please
ensure you fill in your email address on the form)
but, for safety, tickets will be kept at the Festival
Ticket Office for you to collect upon your arrival
in Hereford.
Despatch of tickets
Tickets (excluding those for overseas) will be
sent out as soon as possible after your booking
has been processed, unless collection in person is
selected. Please check your tickets as soon as they
arrive. A detailed seating plan will be available on
our website (www.3choirs.org) from Monday 13
April 2015 at the latest. Should any alterations to
your ticket order prove necessary, please notify
the Festival Ticket Office immediately.
Tickets ordered after Friday 17 July will not be
posted, but will be held in the Festival Ticket Office
for you to collect upon your arrival in Hereford.
Please ensure that tickets are picked up by 7 pm
before an evening concert. (Any tickets not
collected by that time will be held at the north
door of Hereford Cathedral.) Similarly with other
venues, we will try to ensure that uncollected
tickets are held on the door, but this cannot be
guaranteed.
Accessibility
We welcome all visitors to the festival and will
be happy to help with access issues wherever
possible. A separate fact sheet is available to be
sent out with the ticket order if requested, giving
full details of access to all venues. The cathedral
has an audio loop for services, but it is not
possible to use it for concerts. It will help us
to help you if, when booking your tickets, you
indicate the nature of your disability and any
special requirements you may have, in particular
whether you need a wheelchair space for concerts.
34
Specific wheelchair spaces are available in
all price bands within the cathedral.
Please note
that the ordinary seats are not interchangeable
with wheelchair spaces in any venue. A very
limited number of car parking spaces are
available for disabled drivers with a blue badge.
These will be allocated on a first come, first
served basis. If you need one, please ensure that
you request it with the ticket office at the time
of booking. The ticket office will confirm within
five working days of the ticket reservation being
made whether a parking space is available or
not. Further information about getting around
the city is available from Hereford Tourist
Information Centre, contact details below.
Accommodation
A list of accommodation available in the area can
be provided by our ticket office, tel 0845 652 1823,
email info@threechoirs.org. Please note that none of
the details given by third parties have been verified
by the Three Choirs Festival and we can accept no
responsibility for any aspect of the accommodation
listed. All arrangements for accommodation are
made privately between the individuals concerned
and the owners of the accommodation, and the
Three Choirs Festival cannot further advise on
any accommodation matters.
Hereford Tourist Information can be
contacted on 01432 268430, via email at
reception@visitherefordshire.co.uk and on
their website: www.visitherefordshire.co.uk
Terms and conditions
• T
he festival reserves the right in reasonable
circumstances (i) to refuse admission to an
event venue, (ii) to request any ticket holder
to leave a venue and (iii) to take appropriate
action to enforce this right.
• Late-comers will only be admitted at a suitable
break in the performance.
• In the interests of security, the festival requests
that concert-goers refrain from bringing large
items of baggage to any event venue, and it
reserves the right to search any bags, music
cases etc, before entry to the venue.
• Photography and the use of any video or audio
recording equipment are prohibited.
• Tickets are sold subject to the festival’s right to
make any alterations to the artists, programme
or any other advertised arrangements.
• All ticket discounts are subject to availability.
• Tickets cannot be refunded except on
cancellation of an event by the Three Choirs
Festival committee or substantial alteration
to the programme. All sales are final.
ART
EXHIBITION
2015
and sale of original artwork
• If, unfortunately, you are unable to attend an
event or concert, the donation of your ticket
would be gratefully received.
• Children under 16 attending as members of
audiences remain the responsibility of their
parents/guardians/carers.
Data protection
The festival maintains an electronic database of
contact details and ticket information relating to
its patrons. This information will not be shared
without consent. This practice is within the
guidelines of the Data Protection Act (1998).
The Sports Hall, Hereford Cathedral School,
Castle Street, Hereford
10am - 6pm, July 25th - 31st
FREE ENTRY
Promoted by
The Three Choirs Festival Association Ltd
7c College Green, Gloucester GL1 2LX
Registered Charity No 204609
All details, programmes and artists published
in this brochure are correct at the time of going
to press but may be subject to alteration.
www.gabbs.biz
Delighted to
support
Europe’s oldest
music festival
1-2 Chancery Lane
HAY ON WYE
14 Broad Street
HEREFORD
26a Broad Street
LEOMINSTER
01497 820312
01432 353481
01568 616333
Booking Brochure designed by Studio Savidge
Printed by Impact Print & Design Ltd, Hereford
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
35
3_choirs_advert.qxp_Layout 1 29/01/2015 12:24 Page 1
Quality sightseeing tours arranged using
local knowledge and expert guides
Come and explore our hidden gems
‘Elgar and the Malvern Hills’
Organised Coach tour with Blue Badge Guide
Wednesday 29th July 2015
Please contact Liz Hill for more details
t
07966 378170
e info@rural-concierge.co.uk
w www.rural-concierge.co.uk
Your rural concierge based in Herefordshire
36
En-suite, hotel standard rooms available all
year with campus style accommodation
during College holidays, we are the perfect
venue for your residential music event or
Three Choirs Festival visit.
Catered or self-catered options; free parking;
accessible facilities; licensed bar available for
group bookings.
“Excellent accommodation and brilliant
meals, everyone was very accommodating.
I would be very happy to recommend you to
anyone in the future.” (Visiting Choir, July 14)
The Royal National College for the Blind
Venns Lane, Hereford HR1 1DT
tel: 01432 376 635
email: gardner@rnc.ac.uk
www.gardnerhall.co.uk
We are a family run hotel, perched high on the slopes of the Malvern Hills
and boasting fabulous 30 mile views across the Severn Valley.
We have an award winning 2 rosette restaurant called ‘Outlook’
which offers a superb choice of modern English cuisine.
The Cottage in the Wood
Hotel & Outlook Restaurant
Holywell Road, Malvern, Worcestershire WR14 4LG
Call 01684 588860 or email us
reception@cottageinthewood.co.uk
to make a reservation
cottagewoods_ad.indd 2
6/2/14 12:43:54
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*3 issues for £1 only available to UK residents paying by Direct Debit. After your trial period your payments will continue at £23.10 every 6 issues, saving 30%
on the shop price. If you cancel within 2 weeks of receiving your 2nd issue you will pay no more than £1. Your subscription will start with the next available
issue. Offer ends on 31st August 2015. †Lines open Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 9am to 1pm.
Calls to this number from a BT landline will cost no more than 5p per minute. Calls from any other providers may vary.
The Cathedral Choristers are supported across festival week by Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
37
3choirs.org
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Opportunities to support the Three Choirs Festival through sponsorship are still available.
At the time of going to press, the festival acknowledges with thanks the generous support of the following:
Public bodies
Hereford City Council
Friends organisations
Friends of Hereford Cathedral
Friends of Hereford Three
Choirs Festival
Three Choirs Festival Society
Corporate
Gabbs Solicitors
Lee Bolton Monier-Williams
Trusts & Foundations
Alan Cadbury Charitable Trust
The Bliss Trust
The Elmley Foundation
The Frank Clarke-Whitfeld Trust
The Gibbs Charitable Trust
The Hawthorne Charitable Trust
The Music Reprieval Trust
The Perry Family Charitable Trust
The Philharmonia Trust
Pippin Trust
Individual Giving
Elizabeth & Simon Allen
Richard Arenschieldt
Angela Day
Bernard Day
Michael Guittard
Hilary & Peter Hillier
Glyn Morgan
Katharine O’Carroll &
Robert Atkins
Harry Prince
The Very Revd Michael Tavinor
Father Michael Thomas
Anwen Walker
Katharine Wedgbury
Pamela White
Clare Wichbold
Chairman’s Circle
Philip Baldwin
Joanna Brickell
Liz Chave
Clare Stevens
Jeremy Wilding & Sue Vaughan
Media partner
BBC Music magazine
Event partner
Rhinegold Publishing/
Choir & Organ magazine
Three Choirs Foundation:
Single donations
Janet Cooper
John E T Corrie
David Kingsmill
P A Moylan
J W Noakes
D J Parry-Smith
R J Read
Byrd Circle
Mark Elliston
Michael Guittard
Bruce Herriot
Gillian Peach
The Frank
Clarke-Whitfeld
Trust
Harry Prince
Howard Sayer
Francis Witts
Angela Wyllie
Tallis Circle
R A Ellis
David H Jordan
Alison Millard
David Phillips
William Stallard
David Williams
Finzi Circle
Elspeth Barkes
Alastair Barnett
Dr Timothy Brain
Peter Cottingham
Major Martin Everett
Carolyn Pascall
Helen Whittaker
Roy Whittaker
Purcell Circle
Hilary Elgar
Toby Hooper
Sir Nigel Nicholls
Graham Moore
Two anonymous donations
Parry Circle
Penny & Terry Moore
Elgar Circle
Bernard & Angela Day
Sir Michael & Lady Perry