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| Three Choirs Festival at Gloucester Cathedral (Photo: Michael Whitefoot) |
The Three Choirs Festival, this year at Gloucester, takes place from 25 July to 1 August 2026, curated by Adrian Partington who is director of music at Gloucester Cathedral.
2026 is the 75th anniversary of the Elgar Society so that the music of Elgar is a renewed focus for the festival. Adrian Partington conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in Elgar’s Symphony No. 1, Cockaigne Overture, Martin Brabbins conducts Roderick Williams (!) and the Philharmonia in Sea Pictures, and the festival concludes with Adrian Partington conducting The Dream of Gerontius with John Findon, Niamh O’Sullivan, David Ireland and the Three Choirs Festival Chorus.
Gloucester Cathedral has a new organ, 54 years after the previous one was installed. Nicholson & Co. Ltd are renewing and rebuilding the instrument, all within the historic organ case which was originally constructed in 1666 by Thomas Harris. It is the
only complete 17th century cathedral organ case surviving in this
country. To celebrate, Katelyn Emerson is the soloist in Poulenc’s Organ Concerto and Janacek’s Glagolitic Mass in a concert conducted by Adrian Partington and featuring soprano Rachel Nicholls, contralto Hilary Summers, tenor Gwyn Hughes and bass Ashley Riches. And there will be an organ recital from Thomas Ospital, organist of St Eustache in Paris .
Gloucester-born Gavin Higgins, is the Festival’s inaugural Associate Composer, and Higgins premieres a new setting of the Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, sung by the three cathedral choirs and broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. Other works of his during the Festival include the UK premiere of Fanfare Americana, for orchestra, and Urban Fairy Tales played by pianist Misha Kaploukhii. Other contemporary composers at the festival include Cecilia McDowall, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, and Judith Weir.
Large choral works include Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Beethoven’s Mass in C, and Mozart’s Requiem with the Three Choirs Festival Chorus, Monteverdi’s Vespers from La Serenissima and the three Cathedral Choirs, and Rachmaninov’s Vespers with Jeffrey Skidmore conducting Ex Cathedral.
Adrian Partington is also conducting a Come and Sing Mozart Requiem event, along with a come and sing a full cathedral Evensong, while the Gloucestershire Academy of Music collaborates with young musicians and community choirs in a concert exploring music and wellbeing. Free services, open rehearsals, and accessible family events ensure that the Festival continues to welcome audiences of all ages and backgrounds.
Full details from the Three Choirs Festival website.
