Three Choirs Festival

The Three Choirs Festival announces Gavin Higgins as its inaugural Associate Composer, marking the launch of a major composer development programme, and continuing the festival’s long-standing commitment to new music. This three-year residency deepens the festival’s historic ties with living composers, placing long-term creative collaboration at the heart of its programming in the lead-up to its 300th edition in 2028.

Gavin’s first commission as Associate Composer, a setting of the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis, will be premiered at the 2026 Festival in Gloucester, the city of his birth. The work will be premiered by the combined three cathedral choirs of Gloucester, Hereford and Worcester at Choral Evensong on Wednesday 29 July, and will be broadcast live on BBC Radio 3.

Each year, a new composer will join the programme, building a cohort of three composers in residence by the third year. Over the course of their residencies, Associate Composers will engage closely with audiences and contribute to the artistic life of the festival, culminating in the premiere of a major choralorchestral work in their final year. This initiative reinforces the festival’s role as a force for nurturing new music, and championing the voices of today’s most compelling composers.

Speaking of the appointment, CEO David Francis says, “Speaking on behalf of the Artistic Directors and team at the Three Choirs Festival, we are really excited that Gavin Higgins – who has strong local connections - has accepted our invitation to become our Associate Composer – the first of this new initiative. Over the years our festival has created deep and lasting connections between composers and festival audiences, and this Association will continue that incredible legacy. This Association is rooted in the notion that deep relationships result in stronger and more enduring artistic outcomes, which has got to be good for the composer, the artform and audiences. We are really looking forward to working with Gavin over the next three years, and to the creative results of this residency.”

Gavin Higgins, comments, “I am absolutely thrilled to be announced as the Three Choirs Festival inaugural Associate Composer. I was born in Gloucester and grew up in the area and so the chance to come back home and share my music with the amazing audiences Three Choirs attracts feels very special indeed. I'm looking forward immensely to immersing myself within the festival, and introducing some old and new works to audiences over the coming years. I can't wait to get stuck in - it's going to be very exciting!”

The Gloucester 2026 festival will open on Saturday 25 July 2026 with a performance of the boisterous cantata Belshazzar’s Feast, and end with a performance of Elgar’s masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius on Saturday 1 August 2026. In celebration of the Elgar Society’s 75th anniversary, the programme includes his First Symphony, Sea Pictures (sung by Roderick Williams), Cockaigne, and the Piano Quintet.

Elgar had a lifelong association with the Three Choirs Festival; he first attended concerts as a boy and went on to have many of his greatest works performed here. That legacy continues today, with his music still at the heart of the Festival’s identity.

Another landmark moment will be the debut of Gloucester Cathedral’s new organ, 54 years after the previous instrument was installed. Katelyn Emerson performs Poulenc’s Organ Concerto followed by Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, while Thomas Ospital gives the Celebrity Organ Recital. Championing British composers remains a festival priority, with works by Judith Bingham, Cecilia McDowall, Edmund Rubbra, and Ian Venables, featured throughout the week. A series of choral-orchestral masterworks completes the programme, including Mozart’s Requiem, Beethoven’s Mass in C, and settings of Vespers by both Monteverdi and Rachmaninov.

Booking for the 2026 Three Choirs Festival opens from 16 March for stewards and 13 April for the general public. Full programme details can be found at 3choirs.org from March 2026.