The Three Choirs Festival is to create its own “choral memorial to the men who died on both sides and to those in each community left behind”, to mark the Centenary of the First World War.
The Three Choirs Festival has been held annually since the eighteenth century, with three Cathedral cities in England, (Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford), playing host to the Festival on a rotating basis.
The Festival aims to create its own “choral memorial” in 2014 to mark the Centenary of the First World War.
The memorial will be inclusive – in honour of those who fought on both sides of the conflict – and will also pay homage to those who were left behind.
The choral piece will also “highlight the positive that can emerge from the horror [of war]”.
The project appears to transcend the First World War and addresses the wider theme of conflict, as the Three Choirs Festival will collaborate with the German Chemnitz Opera.
“Chemnitz in South East Germany was obliterated by Allied bombing” in 1945, during the Second World War.
As such, performances will also take place in Chemnitz in 2015, as well as in Worcester in July 2014.
The undertaking will therefore be “a joint project” across “an historic divide”, which will “pick up elements that were common to both sides in two world wars [and] acknowledge the sacrifice made by each country and the long term and very similar effect on both our communities.”
Images courtesy of the Three Choirs Festival website
Source: Three Choirs Festival website
Posted by: Daniel Barry, Centenary News