THE lay clerks, choral scholars and boy choristers of Worcester, Hereford and Gloucester Cathedrals spent one of the hottest days of the year rehearsing together in Worcester for the forthcoming Three Choirs Festival, as singers from Hereford and Gloucester joined the 'home team' to work on repertoire for some of the main festival concerts.

Worcester Three Choirs Festival 2014 takes place from July 26 to August 2 in Worcester Cathedral and other venues in and around the city. Daily services of Evensong by the three cathedral choirs are an integral part of the festival. For the evening concerts the professional cathedral choirs will be joined by the Three Choirs Festival Chorus, made up of amateur sopranos, altos, tenors and basses from the three cities, and will be accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra.

A highlight of each year's festival is the solo daytime concert by the Three Cathedral Choirs. This year's chosen work is the Mass in B minor by J S Bach, one of the great cornerstones of choral repertoire. It will be performed in Worcester Cathedral at 2.30pm on Tuesday 29 July.

In his first year as artstic director Peter Nardone has taken centenary of the outbreak of WWI as a theme throughout the festival, which has jointly commissioned (with Chemnitz Opera) A Foreign Field by Torsten Rasch, a memorial which moves beyond reconciliation towards an openness and sharing of memories, bringing together singers from the Three Choirs with those from Chemnitz.

The opening three days start with a Requiem and finish with Resurrection – Britten and Mahler framing a miniature festival in themselves.

Full programme details for the Worcester Three Choirs Festival 2014 can be found on the festival website at 3Choirs.org. Book online or call the ticket office on

0845 652 1823.