Concert details for The Three Choirs Festival were released earlier this week at a special launch event at the Speaker’s House in Westminster. The choral festival rotates between Hereford, Gloucester, and Worcester. This year’s festival is hosted in Hereford and runs from 26th July to 2nd August 2025.
Fifty musical events, plus a whole range of talks span the festival including appearances from Roderick Williams, clarinettist Emma Johnson, Stile Antico, the Philharmonia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, organist Olivier Latry, and mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly.
Concerts celebrate 50 years since the death of British composer Arthur Bliss with a performance of Mary of Magdala from the Philharmonia conducted by Adrian Partington, a festival talk exploring Bliss’ close connection with the Festival, a performance of his music for strings from the National Youth String Orchestra, and piano duets from Mark Bennington and Irene Lou.
Marking 150 years since the birth of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, the Festival revives the composer’s oratorio The Atonement. Herbert Howell’s remarkable and rarely heard Hymnus Paradisi also features alongside Paradise Rondel. There are also much-anticipated premieres from Richard Blackford in The Black Lake, plus Bob Chilcott’s Mass for Peace and Reconciliation.
There is an unshakeable spirit to Three Choirs Festival evident in the warm enthusiasm found at the launch event, one that promises a welcoming community buried deep in the English countryside come the end of July. Much of this stems from its considerable legacy. The near 300 year old Festival has a long tradition of firsts, yet the event goes largely unmentioned. Still there is a quiet sense of anticipation about this festival with plenty here to tempt the curious-minded.
With Aldeburgh, Edinburgh and now Three Choirs, summer is shaping up to be a delightful season criss-crossing the country.
