Britten Pears Arts
Britten Pears Arts is a large music education organisation based in Suffolk, England. It aims to continue the legacy of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, singer Peter Pears, and to promote the enjoyment and experience of music for all. It is a registered charity.
The charity manages two historic locations on the Suffolk coast: [|Snape Maltings Concert Hall], a converted Victorian malting building on the edge of the River Alde in the village of Snape, Suffolk, and The Red House, the former home of Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears. The organisation was founded by Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears and Eric Crozier in 1947 as an organisation to present the first Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts in 1948.
Each year Britten Pears Arts promotes the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts, the [|Snape Proms], concert series at Easter and October, together with a year-round performance programme at Snape Maltings Concert Hall and other venues on the Snape site. The Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, formerly known as the Britten–Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, provides development opportunities for musicians early in their professional lives, between the ages of 18 and 25. [|Aldeburgh Young Musicians] offers a programme of music mentoring for "promising young musicians" aged 10–18. [|Aldeburgh Education] offers an annual programme of work involving the wider community, while [|Aldeburgh Residencies] provides opportunities for established artists to develop their creative talents.
History
While touring with the English Opera Group in Europe in 1947, the composer Benjamin Britten, tenor Peter Pears and producer Eric Crozier developed the idea of a music festival in Aldeburgh, where Britten had a house on Crag Path. An executive committee was formed under the chairmanship of the Countess of Cranbrook and the first meeting took place at Thellusson Lodge, Aldeburgh on 27 October 1947. The first Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts was held from 5 to 12 June 1948, under the Artistic Direction of Britten, Pears and Crozier, with the Earl of Harewood as president and Elizabeth Sweeting as general manager.Needing to expand the Festival into larger premises, in 1967, the Festival management acquired a lease on disused Victorian buildings at Snape Maltings, and converted the largest of the redundant malthouses into Snape Maltings Concert Hall. The Snape Maltings Foundation Ltd was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee, no. 980281, on 21 May 1970 under the name of Snape Maltings Foundation Ltd. to manage the Snape buildings and develop further buildings on the site. The initial subscribers were Benjamin Britten, Peter Pears, Imogen Holst, Fidelity, Countess of Cranbrook, Marion, Countess of Harewood, Charles Gifford and The Lord Goodman. The company was registered with the Charity Commission as the Aldeburgh Foundation, registration number 261383, on 23 July 1970. The company changed its name to Aldeburgh Festival–Snape Maltings Foundation Ltd on 7 September 1976, and to Aldeburgh Foundation on 12 October 1983. In November 1997, the name of the company was changed to Aldeburgh Productions, and from July 2006 until the merger in April 2020 it had the name Aldeburgh Music.
Background and ethos
Following its successful launch in 1948, the Aldeburgh Festival expanded year by year until it outgrew the available venues in the town. When redundant malting buildings in Snape became available in 1965, an initial 25-year lease was taken on the largest of the Victorian malthouses, and it was converted by Arup Associates and Wm. C. Reade into Snape Maltings Concert Hall. The 820-seat Hall was opened by HM The Queen on 2 June 1967. From that date, the main events of the annual Festival were relocated to Snape Maltings Concert Hall. A major fire in 1969 led to the re-development of the site, re-opening the following year, and gradually what was once a Concert Hall for a three-week Festival, became a year-round venue, including the introduction in the 1980s of the annual Snape Proms.From the very beginning, part of the artistic vision of the original directors had been the development of young musical talent. As early as 1953, Britten and Pears, committed to the musical development of young people, formed the idea of having a school of music at Snape. The fundamental concept was "to prepare and promote young singers or string players for professional life at the very highest level." It took until September 1972 for the first masterclasses to be given, by Pears, and in 1975 a Snape Maltings Training Orchestra rehearsed and performed at the Hall for the first time. Following the death of Britten in 1976, the Benjamin Britten Memorial Appeal was launched, and the barley store adjacent to the Concert Hall was converted by Arup Associates into the Britten–Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies. Opened on 28 April 1979 by the patron of the Aldeburgh Foundation, HM Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, the School incorporated a 120-seat recital room, a top-floor Seminar Room, with many practice rooms in between and a reference library, the Holst Library.
Over the years, such artists as Dame Joan Sutherland, Ann Murray, Sir Thomas Allen, Galina Vishnevskaya, Murray Perahia, Sir Charles Mackerras, Elisabeth Söderström and Dawn Upshaw as well as Pears himself have been notable teachers, while its many alumni have included Thomas Adès, Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside and Dame Felicity Lott.
From the beginning, the Festival was committed to working with and for its local community, breaking down the barriers between amateur and professional. Education and working with young people always featured, and this continues today with Aldeburgh Education involving the local community as creators and performers as well as audiences. The department now runs 3 year-round programmes and in 2011–12 delivered 432 sessions, with over 15,000 participants, over 17,000 audience members and 147 artists. In 2012 the annual Celebration of Schools’ Music, presented in association with Suffolk County Council, celebrated its 25th year at Snape Maltings Concert Hall.
Aldeburgh Residencies was launched in 2003 to offer bespoke development opportunities to established artists. The Residencies enable individuals and ensembles to come to Snape to create new work, develop new partnerships and explore new possibilities.
Aldeburgh Young Musicians is a Centre for Advanced Training, created in 2007 with funding from the government to provide advanced music mentoring for exceptionally talented young musicians aged between 8 and 18 based in the Eastern Region.
The growth of the work of Aldeburgh Music led to the need for more accommodation, and further semi-derelict buildings adjacent to the Concert Hall on the Snape Maltings site were acquired in 2006 on a 999-year lease, and the Aldeburgh Music Development Plan launched to raise the money necessary for their conversion. Following a successful £16 million fund-raising campaign, a new Creative Campus was opened in May 2009, designed by architects Haworth Tompkins. The Hoffmann Building contains the Britten Studio, the Jerwood Kiln Studio and a number of rehearsal spaces. The Britten–Pears Building has been redeveloped and now incorporates the Trask Artists’ Cafe. A small studio has been created out of the derelict Victorian Dovecote. In Aldeburgh, the Pumphouse, Aldeburgh Music's small alternative venue, has been redeveloped.
Aldeburgh Music Today
The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts remains at the core of Aldeburgh Music's annual programme. Artistic directors of the Aldeburgh Festival have included composer Thomas Ades and from 2009-16 Pierre-Laurent Aimard.Traditionally starting on the second Friday in June and running for 17 days, events are presented not only in the various venues at Snape Maltings, but in all the traditional Festival venues such as Aldeburgh Parish Church, Orford Church, Blythburgh Church and the Festival's original home, Aldeburgh’s Jubilee Hall. Site-specific events have taken place elsewhere, such as Sizewell Beach, Leiston Long Shop Museum, RAF Bentwaters Airbase, and community events on the beach. The Pumphouse, situated off the marshes on the outskirts of the town, provides an informal, alternative performance venue.
Although Britten’s work always features in the Festival – and played a large role in 2013, his centenary year – it by no means dominates the programme, which continues to commission and present new work from contemporary composers, as well as exploring themes across many genres. The Festival's Artists in Residence have included composer-conductor Oliver Knussen, a former artistic director of the Festival, in 2012, and composer George Benjamin in 2015. Previous contemporary composers to be examined in depth in recent festivals include György Ligeti and Marco Stroppa, George Benjamin and Pierre Boulez, Harrison Birtwistle and Elliott Carter and György Kurtág.
Festivals also include work by the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme, including Britten–Pears Alumni. A programme of fringe events takes place at The Pumphouse in Aldeburgh.
Snape Proms
The Snape Proms take place throughout August each year in the Concert Hall. Some seats in the main block are removed, and audiences sit on cushions on the floor. With a different concert each evening throughout the month, the Proms present an eclectic range of music, including classical, jazz, folk and world music, and incorporate comedy and poetry.Easter Festival
An Easter Festival is mounted each year, together with an autumn weekend generally themed around the work of Benjamin Britten.Britten–Pears Young Artist Programme
Since the very first course in 1972, over 10,000 young artists have attended what started as the Britten–Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, and is now called the Britten Pears Young Artist Programme. Masterclasses for singers, ensembles, instrumentalists and composers are held from March until October. There are also opportunities for emerging young professional musicians to work with conductors, soloists and orchestral principals in both the Britten–Pears Orchestra and the Britten–Pears Baroque Orchestra. Many of the masterclasses are open to the public, and each course culminates in a public performance, including at the Aldeburgh Festival and Snape Proms. Auditions are held across the world, now using modern technology to access countries on the other side of the globe. Previous conductors of the BPO include Edward Gardner, Oliver Knussen, Kirill Karabits, Vasily Petrenko and Robin Ticciati. The Britten–Pears Baroque Orchestra, formed in 1992, is formed each year to work on baroque repertoire, and previous tutors have included period specialists Richard Egarr, Emmanuelle Haïm, Laurence Cummings, Andreas Scholl and Harry Bicket.Singers are auditioned for song recital courses, and recent courses have included American and French song with Dawn Upshaw. Singers and orchestra come together to perform opera; recent productions have included Death in Venice and Albert Herring, and Poulenc’s Les Mamelles de Tiresias in Britten’s arrangement.
Each year there is a digital media course, called New Music/New Media. String quartets come together each spring and present a weekly recital of "work-in-progress" at the Jubilee Hall, and in late summer the International Academy of String Quartets provides further opportunities for working on repertoire. Menahem Pressler, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and the Arditti Quartet have all taught masterclasses.