2021 Worcester 3 Choirs Given Green Light
Following months of uncertainty surrounding government regulations regarding singing, the organisers of the Three Choirs Festival are delighted to announce the festival will take place in Worcester from Saturday 24 July – 1 August. following the easing of COVID restrictions today (19 July). Its large-scale choral concerts involving the Three Choirs Festival Chorus, including Elgar’s The Music Makers and Gabriel Jackson’s exciting new commission The World Imagined, can therefore go ahead, much to the delight of festival-goers.
Following the government’s recent announcement, more tickets have been released for this year’s festival and full event information can be found at 3choirs.org/whats-on. The organisers have stated that the health and safety of their audience, artists and staff is of utmost priority, and there will therefore still be some COVID measures in place during the festival week, which attendees will be encouraged to follow.
Something for Everyone
This year’s festival incorporates the themes of journeying, exploration and looking to the future; very apt given the situation over the past 18 months. The 2021 festival will be the first for Worcester Artistic Director, Samuel Hudson, who took up the post in September 2019 but missed out on hosting a festival last year. There is something for everyone to enjoy at the festival, from major choral and orchestral events in Worcester’s majestic cathedral, to chamber music, late night events, fun-filled family shows, sung cathedral services, fascinating talks and al fresco theatre, walks and excursions. A stellar line-up of soloists will join the festival’s own chorus, the three cathedral choirs of Worcester, Hereford and Gloucester, and orchestra-in-residence, the Philharmonia Orchestra.
The Festival Village will be up and running at the heart of the festival on College Green, Worcester Cathedral, where audience members can relax in between events, enjoy the food and drink on offer, soak up the festival atmosphere, catch free, live music and entertainment on the community bandstand, or pop into a festival rehearsal in Worcester Cathedral to get a flavour of what goes on behind the scenes.
Dr Alexis Paterson, Three Choirs Festival Chief Executive, said: ‘It’s wonderful to be welcoming our choirs, orchestras, ensembles and audiences back to the festival for an emphatic celebration of music-making. I’m so proud of everything our team and performers have done to make this possible; their perseverance during ever-changing guidance and restrictions has been heroic. We can’t wait for heartfelt applause when our performers take to the stage on the opening night. It will be a very special occasion.’
Beginning with Elgar’s The Music Makers!
Samuel Hudson, Worcester Artistic Director, said: ‘It is simply wonderful news that the Three Choirs Festival Chorus will be on stage in Worcester for this year’s festival. After so many months with restrictions on choral singing in place, it will be a joy for the singers to perform again, and a privilege for me to conduct them on the opening night of my first festival. Where better to begin than Elgar’s The Music Makers – ‘We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams’.
The Three Choirs Festival is the longest running classical music festival of its kind in the world. Rotating between the English cathedral cities of Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford, the festival hosts an annual, week-long, summer programme packed with concerts, services, recitals, masterclasses, family events, talks, theatre, exhibitions and lots more.
The chorus is largely drawn from auditioned members of choral societies in Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester, with the largest contingent each year coming from the host city. Amateur choral singers have been taking part in the festival since the middle of the 19th century to augment the cathedral choirs of boy trebles and male altos, tenors and basses.