WELCOME TO HEREFORD!
Our eight-day feast of music opens with a performance of William Mathias’ exciting cantata This Worlde’s Joie. Mathias himself selected its sacred and secular early English texts, and its four sections reflect both the seasons and the span of human life. It is a work of strikingly colourful orchestration, which we are combining with Dvořák’s exuberant large-scale setting of the Te Deum and the overture to Ethel Smyth’s opera The Wreckers, conducted by her at the 1925 festival.
We mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor with a revival of his oratorio The Atonement, first performed under the composer’s baton at the Hereford festival in 1903. Early in Coleridge-Taylor’s career, Elgar was generous in recommending him to the organisers of Three Choirs, describing him as ‘far and away the cleverest fellow amongst the young men’, and his sad death in 1912 at the age of only 37 robbed the musical world of a distinctive voice.
In 1950, Herbert Howells was persuaded by friends and colleagues to allow the first performance of his Hymnus Paradisi, written in the 1930s in an outpouring of grief following the death of his nine-year old son, Michael, but hitherto kept private. We present this moving work together with a rarely-heard piece from earlier in Howells’ career, Paradise Rondel, first performed in Gloucester in 1925, and Arthur Bliss’ Mary of Magdala, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death.
The three cathedral choirs combine this year for a performance of Handel’s Alexander’s Feast. This sparkling work was a great success at its first performance in 1736, and a significant step in his move from writing Italian opera to English oratorio.
We will also have two exciting festival commissions for you: Richard Blackford’s The Black Lake and Bob Chilcott’s Mass in Time of War.
The rousing finale is a performance of Mendelssohn’s ever-popular oratorio Elijah, for many years a fixture at every festival.
Geraint Bowen
Artistic Director
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE 2025 FESTIVAL PROGRAMME
Saturday 26 July
Smyth Overture to The Wreckers 10'
Dvořák Te Deum 20'
Mathias This Worlde’s
Joie 50’
Eleanor Dennis
James Oxley
Malachy Frame
Festival Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra
Geraint Bowen (c)
Daytime Highlight
Carducci Quartet and
Emma Johnson
Coleridge-Taylor |
Shostakovich | Bliss
Sunday 27 July
programme to include
Elgar Introduction and Allegro Op. 47 14'
Britten Les Illuminations 23'
Richard Blackford The Black Lake 50' *
Elizabeth Watts
Festival Chorus
BBC National Orchestra of Wales
David Hill (c)
Daytime Highlight
Roderick Williams and Vocal Essence
Philip Brunelle (c)
Vaughan Williams | Grieg |
Eric Whitacre
Wednesday 30 July
Howells Paradise Rondel 10'
Bliss Mary of Magdala 27'
Howells Hymnus
Paradisi 48'
Rebecca Hardwick
Dame Sarah Connolly
Ruairi Bowen
Malachy Frame
Festival Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra
Adrian Partington (c)
Daytime Highlight
James Gilchrist and Anna Tilbrook
Quilter | Fauré | G. Mahler |
Delius | L. Boulanger
Monday 28 July
programme to include Bob Chilcott Mass in Time of War 40' *
Helen Charlston
Festival Youth Choir
Flowers Band
Samuel Hudson (c)
Daytime Highlight
Mark Bebbington
Bliss | Poulenc | Ireland | Carwithen | Debussy
Tuesday 29 July
Handel Alexander’s Feast 90'
Gwilym Bowen
Gareth Brynmor John
Three Cathedral Choirs
Musical and Amicable Society
Geraint Bowen (c)
Thursday 31 July
Coleridge-Taylor The Atonement 90'
Ella Taylor
Aoife Miskelly
Rachel Roper
David Stout
Festival Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra
Samuel Hudson (c)
Friday 1 August
programme to include Dobrinka Tabakova
Centuries of Meditations 20'
Fauré Requiem 35'
Ossian Huskinson
Festival Voices
Philharmonia Orchestra
Adrian Partington (c)
Daytime Highlight
Lotte Betts-Dean and
Marsyas Trio
Debussy | Anne Boyd |
Michael Finnissy** |
Judith Weir
Saturday 2 August
Mendelssohn Elijah 100'
Elizabeth Llewellyn
Jess Dandy
Anthony Gregory
Matthew Brook
Festival Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra
Geraint Bowen (c)
Daytime Highlight
The King’s Singers
A bespoke a cappella
programme spanning the group’s breadth of repertoire
festival commission **premiere
Daytime Highlight
National Youth Orchestra of Wales
Kwame Ryan (c)
Corigliano | Mason Bates | Gershwin | Bernstein |
Wang Jie
Daytime Highlight
National Youth String
Orchestra
Damian Iorio (c)
Bliss | Respighi | Mussorgsky
KEY DATES
Sign up to our mailing list at 3choirs.org/mailing-list to be the first to hear about our full festival programme when it launches in March 2025
Patronsʼ Booking from Monday 24 March
Membersʼ Booking from Monday 31 March
General Booking from Monday 14 April
Patrons and Members receive exclusive news and events, as well as priority booking for the festival. For more information, call us on 01452 768928 or visit 3choirs.org/support-us/membership
Be part of the music
There are three ways you can take to our stages in the festival programme: as an auditioned member of the Three Choirs Festival Chorus, as a participant in the Three Choirs Festival Voices, or as part of the Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir (for ages 14–25). Full details of each group can be found at 3choirs.org/join-in, including details of how to sign up for Chorus auditions taking place this autumn.
From spring 2025, the festival is launching Herefordshire Junior Voices, a new children’s choir for ages 8–13. You don’t need to be singing in a school choir or have ever done any singing before to join in, and there are no auditions and no fees! Simply register your interest to find out more when entries open in September. The choir will give its first performance in the summer term 2025.
Know
a school who’d love to
get involved?
Our 2025 Participation project, This is Us, will give schools the chance to write and perform their own songs, inspired by folk music both local and global. If your school or a school you know would like to take part in the series of creative and vocal workshops with a massed performance in Hereford in March, get in touch with Hannah: hannah.roper@3choirs.org
Not a singer but would love to be hands-on behind the scenes?
We’re always looking for volunteers to get involved with our year-round programme of fundraising events and festival delivery. To find out more, contact our Production Manager, Jess: production@3choirs.org
Support us
Donations make our music possible, and there are so many ways that you can support the music you love. Get in touch with Robert at supportus@3choirs.org or on 01452 768930 and he will be delighted to chat through options with you. Thank you to those who’ve already pledged their support for 2025:
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