Three Choirs Festival – Meet Samuel Hudson
You are the Artistic Director of the Worcester Three Choirs Festival. What’s your favourite thing about your job?
Well, there are so many things I could say, not least having the joy of working with the Philharmonia! I find the responsibility and privilege of crafting and shaping festival programmes really exciting (and sometimes a little overwhelming), and being up there conducting such electrifying performances of the best orchestral and choral works is a real thrill.
Is there a particular concert you’re looking forward to in this year’s Festival?
The opening night is always a very special occasion with its own atmosphere, but that’s just the tip of the musical iceberg of any festival programme! Every day of the festival brings its own highlights, but I’m particularly looking forward to conducting the Mass for the Endangered evening concert on Monday 29 July, featuring a contemporary work of the same name by Sarah Kirkland Snider, and the luscious Serenade for Strings by Edward Elgar – it is always such a privilege to perform Elgar’s music in the cathedral!
How has your background as an organist helped your approach to conducting choirs and orchestras?
I was a cellist in a youth orchestra years before I conducted a choir, so it’s that part of my musical background which I often think back to. I then sang in a choir as a treble before I took to the podium, so I would say those two areas of experience definitely help me to this day. I think the one thing which unites us all as musicians is the breath – some of us rely more directly upon it, of course (like singers), but remembering that it’s an integral process for everyone (including a conductor) really helps me.
Can you tell us a bit more about the contemporary choral composers [or the contemporary pieces] we’ll be hearing at this year’s Three Choirs Festival?
We are so proud of the role we play in promoting the work of contemporary composers, and in commissioning new music, which has been a central part of what the Three Choirs Festival does for generations. This year we are featuring the music of Judith Weir, Master of the King’s music, in her 70th birthday year, and I have already mentioned a piece by Sarah Kirkland Snider, the Mass for the Endangered. The festival’s opening night begins with a piece by a contemporary composer, The Imagined Forest by Grace-Evangeline Mason, and another contemporary piece with an environmental theme is Cameron Biles-Liddell’s Yr Afon Yn Yr Awyr (The River in the Sky).
I’m also particularly looking forward to the Youth Choir’s concert, featuring Cecilia McDowall’s Shipping Forecast (with our very own Ben Cooper as narrator!), and the sumptuous Requiem by local composer Ian Venables. There’s more too, including commissions by Paul Mealor and Nathan James Dearden, all of which demonstrate that we are part of a living breathing tradition – I think it’s easy to assume what contemporary music might be like, but there is such a diversity even just in the pieces I have mentioned here. I really hope people will come and discover this at the festival for themselves!
What three things are you listening to at the moment?
- Holst, The Hymn of Jesus
- I have a one-year old son, so we often make our way through nursery rhyme compilations at dinner time!
- I’m also trying to get into podcasts, but haven’t quite got the hang of it yet!
