Three Choirs Festival

Three Choirs Festival, the oldest music festival of its type in Europe. It dates from the early years of the 18th century when the choirs of Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester cathedrals in England arranged an annual music meeting to be held at the end of August, with each cathedral playing host in rotation. Although the festival was devoted to music-making, it also had a charitable purpose; from 1724 collections were taken to be used “to alleviate the poverty of widows and orphans of the clergy of the three dioceses”. Collections at the cathedral doors continue to this day. At first, the festival consisted of two services and two concerts with a repertoire of normal cathedral music plus some oratorio. Gradually, the meetings were extended in duration and scope, and the music of Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and Bach was introduced alongside the works of Handel and Purcell.

Since its beginning, the festival has championed British music. In this century it has commissioned many new works, and continues to do so. Another notable feature is that its chorus of some 300 singers is made up of local people—that is, the three cathedral choirs are joined by vocalists of proven quality from the three English counties which host the festival. The festival now lasts one week, with concerts and recitals at a number of venues, of which the cathedral is only one.