Three Choirs Festival

We are excited to open our 2025–26 season in a new collaboration with Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra, directed by our acclaimed choral and orchestral director Adrian Partington, assisted by our organist, Jonathan Hope, and including two wonderful established soloists, Richard Walshe (Bass-Baritone) and Gail Pearson (Soprano).

The concert will open with the delightful overture to the opera Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921). The opera was based on the Brothers Grimm fairytale and its rich orchestration and lyrical melodies paint pictures of the world as if through the eyes of a child.

Ein Deutsches Requiem by Johannes Brahms (1833 – 1897) is a large-scale work for chorus, orchestra, and soprano and baritone soloists.

We are delighted to have secured the services of soloists Gail Pearson and Richard Walshe. Gail originates from Neath and is well-known as a recitalist and for her fabulous operatic performances in the UK. Richard has recently returned to the UK after 6 years performing operas in Switzerland and Germany. He is ‘one of our own’, having sung in the Gloucester Cathedral Youth Choir, Gloucester Choral Society, the Three Choirs Festival Chorus and as a Lay Clerk at Gloucester Cathedral.

The ‘German Requiem’ does not follow the Latin requiem mass but rather sets extracts from sacred texts, psalms and the German Lutheran bible, assembled by Brahms himself and in the German language. The focus being on consoling and comforting the living.

This is a very popular piece in the choral canon for singers and audience alike and provides a glorious opening to our new season in the unique acoustic and ambience of Gloucester Cathedral.

Book your tickets early to ensure you have the best seats available.