Three Choirs Festival The event is now established in the last week of July. The 300th anniversary of the original Three Choirs Festival was celebrated during the 2015 festival, which took place from 25 July to 1 August in Hereford (the landmark 300th meeting of the Three Choirs does not fall until 2027 due to there being no Three Choirs Festivals for the duration of both WW1 and WW2). The festival is closely identified with the musical careers of British composers Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The organists of the three cathedrals (who act as artistic director and festival conductor when it
Hugh Blair (composer) conductor of the Worcester Festival Choral Society, which gave the first performance on 18 April 1893, at a time when Elgar was little known outside Worcestershire. Blair also asked Elgar to write an organ voluntary for the visit of some American organists to Worcester, and received Elgar's first Organ Sonata as a result (with the opening theme being reminiscent of a theme from "The Black Knight"). Blair introduced the Verdi Requiem to the Three Choirs Festival in 1896. Worcester Cathedral Library contains copies of his compositions. His Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis in B minor for double choir is still performed