Britten Pears Arts

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.

An Easter Festival is mounted each year, together with an autumn weekend[19] generally themed around the work of Benjamin Britten.

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. In 2012, the Britten-Pears Orchestra was conducted by Antonello Manacorda, performing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Snape Maltings Concert Hall at Easter. 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. They presented Rameau’s Naïs as part of the 2012 Snape Proms under Christophe Rousset. In 2012, as part of the Cultural Olympiad, the Aldeburgh World Orchestra was formed, conducted by Sir Mark Elder.[20] Young musicians from across the globe submitted their auditions on YouTube, and an international ensemble of around 124 young musicians came to Suffolk to train and perform both in the Concert Hall in Snape and as part of the BBC Promenade Concert season at the Royal Albert Hall, as well as on a short European tour.

In 2012, Aldeburgh Strings were created to perform under the baton of Markus Däurnet at the 2012 Britten Weekend, the programme included Britten’s Prelude and Fugue, Lachrymae and In memoriam Dennis Brain.

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. In Easter 2012, the programme presented Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas under the direction of Christian Curnyn.

Each year there is a digital media course, called New Music/New Media.[21] In September 2012, the course was led by Rolf Wallin, Tansy Davies, and Alexander Refsum Jensenius, co-founder of the Oslo Laptop Orchestra. 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.

Aldeburgh Residencies are designed for established musicians and other artists.[6] It is intended for the development of specific creative projects, each generally lasting for a week – longer, sometimes, in the case of composers.

Groups or individuals are generally funded by Aldeburgh Music for their accommodation, food and travel, and are expected to allow some public access to the work being undertaken. This may be in the form of an informal Open Session performance, but may also be a full performance in an upcoming Aldeburgh Festival or concert series. Residencies are supported by the John Ellerman Foundation.

Recent artists to benefit from an Aldeburgh Residency include Mark Padmore, Gwyneth Herbert, Netia Jones and Pippa Nissen, I Fagiolini, Exaudi, Alex Wilson (working on a new collaboration with two Malian musicians, preparing for a tour and new CD), the Aurora Orchestra, Mitsuko Uchida and Katie Mitchell.

A particular strand of Aldeburgh Residencies entitled the Composer Residency Scheme enables three composers each year to spend three weeks working on individual new projects. Amongst the composers and librettists participating in this programme have been Anna Meredith, Larry Groves, Simon Limbrick, Mark Ravenhill and Conor Mitchell, Man Fang, Tansy Davies, Christian Mason and Charlotte Bray.

James Boyd developed a programme entitled Sea Change during an Aldeburgh Residency, inspiring new repertoire for guitar and voice by Elspeth Brooke and Jonathan Dove, presented at the 2012 Aldeburgh Festival. Other work developed during Aldeburgh Residencies performed at the 2012 Festival included a programme entitled European Connections, including a new work for voice and piano trio by Vasco Mendonça.

The Jerwood Opera Writing Programme develops new work in the field of opera.[22] The first Jerwood Opera Writing Foundation, led by Artistic Advisor Giorgio Battistelli and a distinguished faculty of experienced practitioners, featured three week-long workshops in March, July and October 2007. Ten of the participants were composers, mostly at the start of a professional career but with little or no experience in writing opera, while the remaining participants were a mix of poets, playwrights and directors with an interest in, but no experience at that stage of, writing libretti. In 2010, the second Jerwood Opera Writing Foundation course began, involving composers, writers and directors both in the UK and worldwide. The participants, twenty composers, writers and directors, took part in three week-long workshop-led courses at Snape Maltings in November 2010, March and July 2011. The workshops mixed practical exercises, theory and discussion, with contributions from teachers including Harrison Birtwistle, Stephen Langridge, Stephen Plaice, David Sawer, Lavinia Greenlaw, Jonathan Dove and Orlando Gough amongst others, and culminated in performances of mini music-theatre works created by the twenty participants.

At the end of November 2011, Aldeburgh Music invited applications for Jerwood Opera Writing Fellowships from composers and writers and their collaborators who wanted to develop a particular opera project for commission and performance. Fellowships were to give support during the development of a new opera by providing a collaborative, supportive environment, as well as financial and practical support and expertise, such as workshops and mentoring. Over sixty applications were submitted from countries worldwide and the following four proposals were each awarded a Jerwood Opera Writing Fellowship: Knots and Do-Nots – composer Sasha Siem and director Ted Huffman; Pleasure – composer Mark Simpson and writer Melanie Challenger; Thanatophobia – composer Joanna Lee and writer Hannah Silva; and Beyond the Pale – composer Benjamin Scheuer, writer Tom Swift and director Tom Creed.

Over 8,000 young people participate in Education projects each year. The latest initiative is Group A, a non-audition choir for young people of between the ages of 13 and 18, and The Big Shout, an opportunity for members of the community to come together to sing. Aldeburgh Education also devises training in participatory settings for artists at all levels.

Aldeburgh Education has been working with Suffolk County Council since 1987, and has been a lead partner in the Suffolk Music Education Hub since 2012. It has worked with HM YOI Warren Hill since 1999, and with Lapwing, an organisation providing individual learning programmes for young people who have complex barriers to learning, since 2009, as well as with a variety of local and national arts organizations around the UK and beyond including the development of audio/visual interactive media.

Aldeburgh Young Musicians (AYM) was created to fill the perceived gap in Aldeburgh Music's engagement with the musical development of younger people.[4] Funded by the Department of Education, each of 45 young musicians between the ages of 8 and 18 has a tailored, individual learning programme, which co-ordinates individual lessons, intensive weekends and residential holiday courses, expert professional advice, mentoring and performance opportunities. Individual students are matched to tutors for additional tuition which can be done on-line. AYM works in partnership with Suffolk County Council Music Service, Pro Corda, Junior Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Purcell School.

In 2011–12, new strands were added to the Aldeburgh Young Musicians programme: AYM Apprentices for younger students who have shown musical talent and potential but need further musical support and development before joining the main scheme; AYM Open House providing the opportunity to Aldeburgh Young Musicians to use rehearsal facilities with other AYMs, provide a venue for individual lessons or master-classes, a private practice space and specialist coaching days; and AYM Exchanging Worlds Ensemble, launched for the Cultural Olympiad 2012. This commissioning group is cross cultural and cross genre in content, working collaboratively and exchanging global musical conversations. Connected to the Aldeburgh World Orchestra and Cultural Olympiad, two AYM composers were commissioned to create a new fanfare to be performed by the Aldeburgh World Orchestra brass section for the Olympic Torch Relay, performed when the Relay travelled to Aldeburgh and Ipswich on 5 July 2012.

Faster than Sound is a strand of activity, supported by the Paul Hamlyn and Esmée Fairbairn Foundations, exploring connections between traditional music and new media, developing new collaborations between experimental musicians from different backgrounds, including electronic and classical.[23] Starting in 2006 with performances in disused hangars at RAF Bentwaters, Faster than Sound, co-produced with Joana Seguro from Lumin, is now based in the Hoffmann Building at Snape Maltings. Since 2009, there have been five week-long residencies each year, culminating in a performance. Recent presentations include I Burn for You, a new music theatre piece based on Dracula, by Ian Wilson (composer) and Tom Creed (director); Symmetry with Marcus du Sautoy and Fall Back connecting the legacy of Dubstep with some of the earliest experiments in electronic music and projection. During the 2012 Aldeburgh Festival, choral ensemble EXAUDI teamed up with sound artist Bill Thompson and students from the University of East Anglia and presented a promenade performance in the Hoffmann Building of John Cage’s Song Books. Other Faster than Sound projects in 2012 include Star-Shaped Biscuit, text and music by David Toop, which will be performed in one of the remaining semi-derelict buildings at Snape Maltings. Later in 2012, composer Richard Baker and sound artist Brian Duffy collaborate on a new work exploring the hidden voices of electronic toys and toy instruments in combination with a small chamber ensemble.

TED is a US-led non-profit organisation devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading.[24] It brings together in international conferences, people from the worlds of Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED).

Aldeburgh Music hosted the inaugural TEDx Aldeburgh Conference on 6 November 2010. Hosted by the TED music director Thomas Dolby and produced by Joana Seguro as an opportunity of having in one place great minds and explorers of contemporary music, the event featured talks by David Toop, Tod Machover, Martyn Ware, William Orbit, Tim Exile, Imogen Heap, Ash Nehru of United Visual Artists. In addition, there were TED talk videos from David Byrne, Itay Talgam, Evelyn Glennie and Benjamin Zander. The gathering of people and ideas coincided with Aldeburgh's New Music New Media course for emerging professional composers and musicians, led by Tod Machover. The second conference was held on 5 November 2011 when the speakers included Vincent Walsh, Peter Gregson, Kingslee Daly, Jennifer Stumm, Nitin Sawhney, Kathy Hinde and the Modified Toy Orchestra.[25]

The Aldeburgh Festival has always included the visual arts as well as music, and a number of exhibitions are curated each year to accompany the music programme. From 2011, the main exhibition of contemporary art has been promoted under the title SNAP, at various locations around the Snape Maltings site, organized by Abigail Lane.[26] In 2012, featured artists included Glenn Brown, May Cornet, Brian Eno, Ryan Gander, Maggi Hambling, Mark Limbrick, Emily Richardson and Gavin Turk.[27]

Aldeburgh Music is also responsible for running the Peter Pears Gallery in Aldeburgh and the Pond Gallery at Snape Maltings. For most of the year these galleries are hired out to local artists, but provide the space for Aldeburgh Music-curated exhibitions during the Aldeburgh Festival.