Clare Stevens provides the latest news on the festival which runs from July 25 to August 1.

AN innovation at this year’s 300th anniversary Three Choirs Festival is a series of informal concerts at 10.15 pm every evening at All Saints in Hereford.

Headlining will be two real stars of the international jazz piano world.

Classically-trained Gwilym Simcock on July 28 with guitarist Mike Walker will take the Three Cathedral Choirs’ performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion earlier in the evening as the starting point for their improvisatory session.

Meanwhile, on July 31, the church will host a performance by the Tord Gustav- sen Quartet from Norway.

Tord’s style combines the laid-back elegance of his Scandinavian roots with an energy that comes from his passion for Gospel and Caribbean music, and this is sure to be a real treat for jazz fans.

The line-up for the All Saints series also includes the traditional concert of secular music by the lay clerks of Hereford Cathed- ral; contemporary vocal trio Juice; saxophonist Amy Roberts; and the Bardic Trio, an unusual combination of tenor, harp and guitar.

“We are really excited to be the key venue for this year’s Three Choirs late-night events,” says Bill Sewell, owner of Café @ All Saints.

“We will finish our pre-concert suppers at about 7.30pm each evening and then transform the church into a late-night venue with a relaxed bar.

“Over the years we have had all kinds of wonderful music here, from renaissance singing, jazz and world music to British folk.

“The acoustics are great and the beauty and informality of our space work really well for this kind of evening. People have a beer, a coffee or a glass of wine and relax and enjoy.”

n General booking is now open for this year’s festival.

Many of the top price tickets for the main evening cathedral concerts and the song recitals by baritone Roderick Williams and mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly in Holy Trinity Church have already gone, but seats with a restricted or slightly restricted view – and don’t forget that television screens all round Hereford Cathedral provide everyone with images of what is happening on stage – are still available.

Those unable to get to one of the evening concerts can take the opportunity to hear the Orlando Consort exploring medieval and modern musical approaches to writing music for the Requiem Mass at 11am on July 27 at St Francis Xavier Church or the Three Choirs Festival Youth Choir singing the Requiem by Bob Chilcott and Leonard Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms on the same day at 2.30 pm in Hereford Cathedral.

The classical chart-topping Voces8 covering three centuries of choral music will also be performing on July 28 at 2.30pm in St Francis Xavier Church.

Tickets are not required for the daily services of Choral Evensong which take place at 5.30pm most afternoons in the cathedral.

Everyone is welcome to come and hear the Three Cathedral Choirs – and, on July 26, Hereford Cathedral Voluntary Choir – singing music dating from renaissance times to the present day in an act of worship which is at the heart of cathedral life all year round, not just at festival time.

And the Three Choirs Festival is not just about singing. The programme offers instrumental music in abundance, from ground-breaking works on a vast scale such as the French composer Olivier Messiaen’s extraordinary Turangalîla-symphonie, to be performed by the resident Philharmonia Orchestra (7.45 pm, July 26 in Hereford Cathedral), and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, to be performed by the National Youth Orchestra of Wales (2.30pm, July 30 in Hereford Cathedral), to solo lunchtime recitals by young performers at Holy Trinity Church: three organists, a pianist, a harpist and a violinist.

Visitors can also attend Leominster Priory on July 29 and hear period-instrument orchestra La Serenissima presenting works by Vivaldi and some of his Italian Baroque contemporaries from 11 am, and the acclaimed Wihan String Quartet, celebrating their 30th birthday this year, playing works by Haydn, Beethoven and their compatriot Smetana, from 2.30 pm.

n Details of all the festival events can be found on www3choirs.org

Booking is available via email at booking@3Choirs.org or by calling 0845 652 1823.