My flight to London was delayed nearly an hour and a half, but I still arrived in plenty of time to catch my train to Gloucester on Sunday morning at 10:30 am. I realized that this is my third time at Gloucester Cathedral, and a year ago to the day I was here listening to Joey Fala play Evensong brilliantly with the Duke University Chapel Choir.

It is a gorgeous day in Gloucester, contrary to all the heat reports we were getting prior to my arrival. Temperatures this afternoon when I arrived were about 17 C/65 deg. F— cool, clear with beautiful blue skies.

I was drawn to all the colorful flowers on the cathedral grounds.

My first event of this year’s Three Choirs Festival was Choral Evensong in the Cathedral, with the three Cathedral Choirs singing (Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford). I think this has got to be one of my favorite activities at the Festival—hearing the gorgeous, soaring voices reverberate throughout the building.

Here’s a photo of me standing in the queue to get into Evensong—and I was at the front part of the line!

Tonight’s concert was the Verdi Requiem—and it must be the most powerful performance I’ve ever heard of this work!  This maybe was my third or fourth live performance and what made it so memorable was the masterful, exciting conducting of Edward Garner, the outstanding soloists: Hye-Youn Lee, Christine Rice, David Butt Philip, and James Platt, the excellent Philharmonia Orchestra, and of course, the singing of the enormous Three Choirs Festival Chorus.

My favorite part, naturally, was the hair-raising and ear-splitting “Dies irae” (Day of wrath chorus, with the choir at its vocal extremes, and the massive sound of the bass drum like a cannon shot, bouncing off the stone walls of the Cathedral. I could definitely feel the tingle up my back as this familiar music took on a new, bold meaning for me.

I couldn’t help but think of my late husband, Carl, and how he would have absolutely loved being here and hearing this gorgeous music.