Page 274 - Media Coverage Book - 75th Aldeburgh Festival 2024

concerts and operas for his Aldeburgh festival, has, over the decades since, developed
into a centre, not just for concerts, but for all the other year-round activities that come
under the umbrella of Britten Pears Arts (BPA).

After 10 years at the helm, Wright, is to stand down as chief executive of BPA at the end
of July (Andrew Comben, currently in charge of the Brighton festival, replaces him).
But no one could accuse Wright of coasting along to his departure. Just a month ago, he
announced plans for a big new capital programme for the Snape site that has been the
focus for the festival since the concert hall became its principal venue in the late 60s. As
well as updating the facilities of the hall and the Britten Pears building – the focus of
BPA’s community and educational programmes – and reducing their carbon footprints,
the scheme includes plans for developing more of the site’s still-derelict buildings and
reinforcing its flood defences.

Snape Maltings concert hall opened in 1967, then was rebuilt following serious fire damage and reopened in
1970. It was granted listed status in 2022. Photograph: Stella Fitzgerald/Historic England Archive/PA

Meanwhile, as the scope of BPA expands, the summer festival, still the highest profile
part of the organisation’s activities, continues to flourish. At a time when a number of
similar classical music festivals, such as Bath and Cheltenham that were also launched
in the postwar era of optimism and regeneration have become the palest shadows of
their former selves, Aldeburgh remains perhaps the only one that offers the same range
and artistic standards that it has nurtured over the last three-quarters of a century.

Wright is well aware of his responsibility for maintaining those standards. “We live in
an uncertain time for music,” he says. “The landscape in which we used to exist, and in