No concert lover’s year would be complete without the opportunity to enjoy the Three Choirs Festival, this year from Gloucester.  We have chosen three wonderful concerts of much loved and familiar works performed in the iconic setting of Gloucester Cathedral and in the historic Cheltenham Town Hall.  A morning visit to the restored Gloucester Docks and the fascinating Waterway Museum with a cruise on the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal, and in the afternoon choral evensong with canticles and anthems in the cathedral, which is to be broadcast live by the BBC.   Staying at the four-star centrally located Regency Mercure Queen’s Hotel in the elegant spa town of Cheltenham.  

Tuesday 10 August: Check into the hotel from 1400 hrs.  Welcome drink and early buffet dinner at 1700 hrs before taking the coach to Gloucester Cathedral for the orchestral concert that includes Vaughan Williams’s Tallis Fantasia, Holst’s St Paul’s Suite,  Sir Edward elgarr's Violin Concerto in B minor, has been described as "the greatest English contribution to the treasury of Romantic violin concertos” performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra,  conductor by Sir Roger Norrington soloist Philippe Graffin. Return to the hotel after the concert.

Wednesday 11 August:  Relaxed morning before the coach departs for Gloucester Docks.  The warehouses including the Waterways Museum, built in the mid-19thC for the corn trade, are now a major conservation area. Visit the museum before a short cruise along the canal.  The coach will then drop you next the cathedral – you need to take your unreserved seat early to enjoy Choral Evensong that includes Leightons Canticles, written for Magdalene College Oxford, and Walton’s Anthem The Twelve.  Supper will be provided by the Friends of the Cathedral before the evening Three Cathedral Choirs Concert – Mozart’s Symphony No 38 (Prague) and Mass in C minor, perhaps the best-known mass and considered one of the composer’s major works – the conductor is Geraint Bowen and accompanying orchestra, Music for Awhile.  Return to the hotel.

Thursday 12 August:  Check out of your rooms before mid-day, enjoy a morning in Cheltenham before making your way over the Town Hall.  The orchestral concert includes Gurney A Gloucestershire Rhapsody, Schumann Piano Concerto and Mendelssohn Symphony No 3 ‘Scottish’. Concert should finish around 1645.  A morning option could be to individually buy tickets for an additional recital in the Cheltenham Pitville Pump Rooms, still part of the festival; details can be provided when booking.


Tour Price:
Price per person: £444 
Single Supplement: £40
Non refundable deposit:  £120

Extra night at the hotel (12th) we are holding some rooms – please reserve at time of booking  £78 pp DBB ss £20

Tour price includes:

	2 nights accommodation, breakfast and welcome drink and one dinner in hotel
	Supper in Gloucester
	Entry to museum and boat cruise
	Top price tickets for three concerts
	Professional guide and executive coaching

Staying at  the Mercure Queens Hotel Cheltenham