Three Choirs Festival

The Board and Team of the festival acknowledge the incredible contribution made by Geraint Bowen as Hereford Artistic Director for the last 24 years, on the announcement of his retirement.

David Francis, CEO of the Three Choirs Festival said:

“I have enjoyed working with Geraint for the 2025 festival, and I’m sorry not to have the opportunity to work with him on delivering another Hereford festival. The success of the 2025 festival was undoubtedly down to Geraint’s skilful and thoughtful programming, which allowed us all to experience core repertoire alongside lesser-known works and new commissions.”

Geraint is one of three Artistic Directors at the Three Choirs Festival, each of whom programme the festival in their ‘home’ cities. Geraint has programmed 8 Hereford festivals since being appointed Organist and Director of Music at Hereford Cathedral in 2001. Highlights of Geraint’s programmes would have to be found in his passion for revivals of rarely performed masterpieces. These have included Dyson’s Quo vadis and The Canterbury Pilgrims, Schumann’s Das Paradies und die Peri, Smyth’s Mass in D and in the 2025 festival, Coleridge-Taylor’s The Atonement. A special mention should also be made of his triumphant programme for the 300th anniversary festival in 2015 including a rare performance of Morning Heroes by Arthur Bliss, as well as the tour-de-force of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie. Geraint’s passion for and deep knowledge of choral music underpinned his inspirational ability to bring neglected works, which truly deserve to be heard, to audiences and musicians alike. He has also been responsible for commissioning works for the festival by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett, Richard Blackford, Kerensa Briggs, Bob Chilcott, Sir James MacMillan, John McCabe, Anthony Powers and Dobrinka Tabakova. Geraint is greatly admired by the Three Choirs Festival Chorus who will miss his patience and skill as a celebrated choral trainer.

Geraint Bowen said:

“It has been a huge privilege to have been associated with the Three Choirs Festival for nearly twenty-five years. My thanks go to the many hundreds of choral singers with whom I have worked over that time, as well as the incomparable Philharmonia Orchestra who have contributed to so many memorable concerts. It’s hard to pick out personal highlights, but I will never forget performances of Haydn’s The Creation and Die Jahreszeiten, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem, both Bach Passions, and the final concert of this year’s festival last month, Mendelssohn’s Elijah. For our 300th anniversary festival in 2015, I also enjoyed being able to celebrate the longevity of our festival by programming, in the course of 36 hours, the utterly different sound-worlds of Purcell’s Te Deum, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie.

I would like to thank the artistic directors with whom I’ve enjoyed collaborating since 2001: Andrew Nethsingha and Adrian Partington at Gloucester, and Adrian Lucas, Peter Nardone and Samuel Hudson at Worcester, as well as the many other festival personnel who ensure that the festival approaches its 300th edition in 2028 in such good health. Long may it continue to flourish!"

The Three Choirs Festival is the longest running classical music festival in the world. The next Hereford Three Choirs Festival will be the 300th festival.

David Francis says:

“Our 300th Festival is a very exciting opportunity for Geraint’s successor and we look forward to working with Hereford Cathedral during the forthcoming selection and appointment process to ensure Geraint’s incredible legacy is built upon.”