Edward Benjamin Britten,Baron Britten was an English composer,conductor,and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music,with a range of works including opera,other vocal music,orchestral and chamber pieces. His best-known works include the opera Peter Grimes (1945),the War Requiem (1962) and the orchestral showpiece The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (1945).
Sir Peter Neville Luard Pears was an English tenor. His career was closely associated with the composer Benjamin Britten,his personal and professional partner for nearly forty years.
Aldeburgh is a coastal town in the county of Suffolk,England,north of the River Alde. Its estimated population was 2,276 in 2019. It was home to the composer Benjamin Britten and remains the centre of the international Aldeburgh Festival of arts at nearby Snape Maltings,which was founded by Britten in 1948. It also hosts an annual poetry festival and several food festivals and other events.
The Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk,centred on Snape Maltings Concert Hall.
A Midsummer Night's Dream,Op. 64,is an opera with music by Benjamin Britten and set to a libretto adapted by the composer and Peter Pears from William Shakespeare's play,A Midsummer Night's Dream. It was premiered on 11 June 1960 at the Aldeburgh Festival,conducted by the composer and with set and costume designs by Carl Toms. Stylistically,the work is typical of Britten,with a highly individual sound-world –not strikingly dissonant or atonal,but replete with subtly atmospheric harmonies and tone painting. The role of Oberon was composed for the countertenor Alfred Deller. Atypically for Britten,the opera did not include a leading role for his partner Pears,who instead was given the comic drag role of Flute/Thisbe.
Snape Maltings is an arts complex on the banks of the River Alde at Snape,Suffolk,England. It is best known for its concert hall,which is one of the main sites of the annual Aldeburgh Festival.
Eric Crozier OBE was a British theatrical director,opera librettist and producer,long associated with Benjamin Britten.
Sir Philip Stevens Ledger,CBE,FRSE was an English classical musician,choirmaster and academic,best remembered as Director of the Choir of King's College,Cambridge in 1974–1982 and of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama from 1982 until he retired in 2001. He also composed choral music and played the organ,piano and harpsichord.
Andrew Shulman is an English virtuoso cellist,conductor and composer. He is currently the principal cellist of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and maintains his cello studio at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles,California.
Roger William Wright CBE is an English arts administrator. He is currently the Chief Executive of Britten Pears Arts.
Rae Woodland was a British soprano who studied with Roy Henderson. Her debut was as Queen of the Night at Sadlers Wells. She sang in many European festivals,and debuted at Covent Garden in La sonnambula with Joan Sutherland and Luciano Pavarotti. She was first asked to sing for Benjamin Britten on the English Opera Group's tour of Russia,and played many roles for him subsequently. She also created roles for Gottfried von Einem,Nicholas Maw and Sir Arthur Bliss,and made many live broadcasts for the BBC,from the RAH Proms to Friday Night is Music Night. She retired from the opera stage in 1984. She then taught singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London,and at the Britten-Pears School in Snape Maltings on the invitation of Sir Peter Pears.
Nancy Evans OBE was an English mezzo-soprano who had a notable career as a concert and opera singer. She is particularly associated with Benjamin Britten who wrote his song cycle,A Charm of Lullabies,and the role of Nancy in his opera Albert Herring for her.
The Britten-Pears Orchestra,formerly The Snape Maltings Training Orchestra,is the youth orchestra of the Britten-Pears Young Artists Programme at Snape Maltings,run by the Aldeburgh Festival.
The Britten–Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies was founded in 1977 in Aldeburgh,Suffolk,following the success both of the master classes held for singers by Peter Pears from 1972,and of the subsequent courses for string players.
Britten Pears Arts is a pioneering cultural charity based in Suffolk,England. It emerged from the determination of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner,singer Peter Pears,to ensure that everyone could enjoy and experience music. Britten Pears Arts aims to continue their legacy to develop talent,celebrate their heritage and engage with communities. The organisation uses music to transform people's lives,to bring communities together and enhance daily life.
Sir Thomas Michael Sydney Hughes-Hallett is a British barrister,investment banker and philanthropy executive. He serves as the Non-Executive Chair of the Marshall Institute at the London School of Economics and the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust. He promotes philanthropy,and argues for more ethical engagement within the City of London.
The Holy Sonnets of John Donne is a song cycle composed in 1945 by Benjamin Britten for tenor or soprano voice and piano,and published as his Op. 35. It was written for himself and his life-partner,the tenor Peter Pears,and its first performance was by them at the Wigmore Hall,London on 22 November 1945. Britten began to compose the cycle shortly after visiting,seeing the horrors of,and performing at,the liberated Nazi Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
David Charles Chester Sulkin OBE is an English theatre and opera director and currently Director of Artist Development at the National Opera Studio. In 2017 Sulkin received a Finzi Scholarship to work in Brno,Czech Republic to complete work on a play about LeošJanáček and the composer’s relationship with his wife and other women:'My Life with Janáček'[working title]. This is now being developed into a film script.
Jonathan Alistair James Reekie has been the Director of Somerset House Trust since 2014. During this time the renovation of the historic site has been completed including the launch of Somerset House Studios,helping establish Somerset House as “London’s Working Arts Centre”,home to a creative community in central London. Reekie’s overseen the expansion of the cultural programme including PJ Harvey’s Recording in Progress with Artangel,Björk Digital,Big Bang Data,Perfume,Get Up Stand Up Now. In 2019 Reekie co-curated with Sarah Cook,the exhibition 24/7,a wake up call to a non-stop world,based on the book by Jonathan Crary.
Canticle IV:The Journey of the Magi,Op. 86,is a composition for three male solo voices and piano by Benjamin Britten,part of his series of five Canticles. It sets the text of T. S. Eliot's poem "Journey of the Magi",retelling the story of the biblical Magi. The work was premiered in June 1971 at the Aldeburgh Festival by James Bowman,Peter Pears and John Shirley-Quirk,with Britten as the pianist. It was published the following year,dedicated to the three singers.
