The Red House, Aldeburgh

"Why not make our own festival?" as Peter Pear suggested in 1947. From that idea, the Aldeburgh Festival was created, shaped by a wish to bring music and culture to a community rebuilding after the Second World War.

This photograph captures the first Executive Committee meeting, where early conversations shaped the future of the Festival, from concert venues and travel to welcoming audiences to the Suffolk Coast.

We continue this legacy today, celebrating the 77th Aldeburgh Festival with creativity, community and world-class performances.

Celebrate summer solstice with us in Aldeburgh this weekend. Start your Sunday with new works that commemorate the beginning and end of Britten’s life, in Lowestoft and here in Aldeburgh.

Then continue your morning at a slower pace with solstice yoga on the lawn, led by Tamara Britten, designed to build strength and find calm.

Places are still available via the link, https://bit.ly/3QzHSjO

50 years after its premiere in 1976 by Janet Baker, Benjamin Britten’s dramatic cantata Phaedra is one of the many exciting works featured at this year’s Aldeburgh Festival on Thursday 18 June.

Britten Sinfonia will perform an evening of obsession, abandonement and absolute fury in this powerful programme of Greek mythology set to music from three centuries.

Tickets are still available via the link, https://bit.ly/3QcKX9e.

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Britain’s revered artist, David Hockney, yesterday.

We were fortunate to welcome Hockney to The Red House during the 1980 Aldeburgh Festival, where a portrait of Peter Pears was commissioned to mark his 70th birthday.

All of us at Britten Pears Arts send our sincere condolences to David Hockney's family and friends. We will continue to cherish his work and influence right across the arts.

Nigel Luckhurst © Britten Pears Arts

Benjamin Britten’s life and music are deeply rooted in Suffolk. Born in Lowestoft and closely connected to Aldeburgh and Snape throughout his life, this landscape shaped the place he called home.

Yet travel was also central to his life as a composer. From Florence to Barcelona and beyond, his journeys were rarely restful, instead filled with recitals, performances and new influences that helped shape his music, even when Suffolk remained the place he returned to create.

Read Lucy Walkers’s Britten Abroad: Part One via the link, https://bit.ly/4e4Nni4

Today we mark John Constable’s 250th birthday by recalling Kenneth Clark’s lecture on the English painter at the first Aldeburgh Festival, 78 years ago today.

From a friendship formed in 1937 to a lifelong partnership that lasted until Britten’s death in 1976, this Pride Month we celebrate the remarkable life and love that Peter Pears’ and Benjamin Britten shared.

📸1- Britten and Pears, Jones Beach, Long Island, c.1940
📸2- The Red House, 1976, Nigel Luckhurst © BPA

This year’s Aldeburgh Festival marks 50 years since Benjamin Britten’s death in 1976.

As the former home of Britten and his partner Peter Pears, we’re at the heart of this living history and the perfect place to spend a day during the Festival and discover more about their lives and work.

We’re open every day throughout the Festival, hosting a range of exciting events, including the return of our National Garden Scheme day on Wednesday 17 June and celebrating the first day of summer with solstice yoga on the croquet lawn, overlooking our tranquil gardens on Sunday 21 June.

There are still some tickets available for our Festival events, find out more via the link, https://bit.ly/4x4SEij

On this day 64 years ago, Britten’s War Requiem premiered at Coventry Cathedral, a powerful tribute to those who lost their lives in both the First and Second World Wars.

Due to the scale of the work, the performance often required multiple conductors. The premiere featured the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Coventry Festival Chorus, conducted by Meredith Davies, alongside the Melos Ensemble conducted by Britten himself.

Britten chose soloists to represent the nations involved in the conflict: British tenor Peter Pears, German baritone Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and Heather Harper, who stepped in at short notice when the Soviet Minister for Culture disallowed Galina Vishnevskaya to perform.