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Our annual visit to the Three Choirs Festival, which rotates between the cathedral cities of Hereford, Worcester and Gloucester, is one of our most popular music holidays every summer, so we are delighted to reveal details of our planned return this July.
It is the turn of Gloucester to take centre stage at the 2023 Three Choirs Festival, with performances taking place in the city’s magnificent 11th century cathedral, renowned for its matchless fan-vaulting – a technique thought to have been invented here. There are also other superb examples of mediaeval architecture which we will see in the city, as well as making excursions to a number of famous houses and gardens in the area.
We stay at the 3-star Mercure Bowden Hall Hotel, an elegant Georgian house set in parkland, five miles from the cathedral. Two excursions are included. We will visit Painswick Rococo Garden, which was designed in the 1740s as a pleasure garden and remains one of the most complete Rococo gardens in Europe. There will also be a visit to Stanway House, a mellow Jacobean country house and the seat of the Earl of Wemyss. The water garden here is one of the finest masterpieces of the landscape designer, Charles Bridgeman.
...when you travel with Kirker
Andrew Biggs read Music and the History of Art at Leeds University. He has led cultural tours throughout the world for over twenty years.
Recent tours include The Metropolitan Opera & the Art Galleries of New York as well as tours to many summer music festivals in the UK including Cheltenham and Buxton Festivals. A teacher and performer, Andrew is currently Head of Prep Music at Berkhamsted School.
26 July, 7.30 - 9.30 pm: Gloucester Cathedral
Under the direction of its founder, Suzi Digby, the forty members of Ora Singers perform music from across the centuries including an arrangement by Greg Murray of Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams.
Byrd Ave Verum Corpus
Tallis Spem in Alium
Byrd Ad Dominum Cum Tribularer
Roxanna Panufnik Kyrie after Byrd
Vaughan Williams arr. Greg Murray Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. Version premiere.
Byrd Laudibus in Sanctis
James MacMillan Lux Aeterna
Hildegard of Bingen O Viridissima Virga
Janet Wheeler Alleluia, I heard a voice
Roderick Williams Ave Verum Corpus Re-imagined
27 July, 7.30 - 10.00 pm: Gloucester Cathedral
Three Cathedral Choirs
Corelli Chamber Orchestra
Geraint Bowen conductor
James Gilchrist tenor
28 July, 7.30 - 9.30 pm: Gloucester Cathedral
Philharmonia Orchestra
Samuel Hudson conductor
Worcester Cathedral Choristers
Three Choirs Festival Voices
James Hall countertenor
James Newby baritone
Samuel West narrator
Vaughan Williams Five Mystical Songs
Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
Graham Fitkin The Age of Aspiration
29 July, 2.00 - 4.00 pm: Gloucester Cathedral
Flowers Band was established fifty-four years ago and takes its name from the Flowers brewery. It is one the country’s leading brass band orchestras.
Michael Fowles conductor
Paul Lovatt-Cooper Home of Legends
Vaughan Williams English Folk Song Suite
Jan van der Roost Canterbury Chorale
John McCabe Cloudcatcher Fells
Gavin Higgins Fanfares and Love Songs
Elgar arr. Denis Wright Nimrod from Enigma Variations
Liz Lane Time and Tide
Elgar arr. J. Ord Hume Pomp and Circumstance March No 1
29 July, 7.30 - 9.45 pm: Gloucester Cathedral
The first performance was given on 14 October 1903 as part of the Birmingham Triennial Festival and was conducted by the composer.
Three Choirs Festival Chorus
Philharmonia Orchestra
Adrian Partington conductor
Tour leader
Andrew Biggs read Music and the History of Art at Leeds University. He has led cultural tours throughout the world for over twenty years.
Recent tours include The Metropolitan Opera & the Art Galleries of New York as well as tours to many summer music festivals in the UK including Cheltenham and Buxton Festivals. A teacher and performer, Andrew is currently Head of Prep Music at Berkhamsted School.
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