Page 148 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

However, Violet, an opera by the BBC Philharmonic’s resident composer Tom Coult, which will
have its world premiere on Friday, is, one suspects, very much of the avant-garde school of which
Britten would have approved. The festival – held mainly at the Snape Maltings arts complex in the
village of Snape – gives a showcase to contemporary composers and young musicians, fulfilling its
mission to act as a breeding ground for the virtuosi of tomorrow.

Alongside the world-renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti, this year’s featured artists include Mark
Simpson, the clarinettist, the cellist Laura van der Heijden and the organist Anna Lapwood, who
will play her arrangement of Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes. Today’s composers
are represented by, among others, Laura Bowler and Gavin Higgins.

The festival is not just about music, nor is it limited to Snape and Aldeburgh. One of the great local
architectural treasures, Blythburgh church, will on June 5 host a performance by Laura van der
Heijden and the Doric Quartet of Schubert’s String Quintet. On June 11 the festival will mark the
Queen’s Platinum Jubilee with choral works from both her reign and that of Elizabeth I in St
Edmundsbury cathedral in Bury St Edmunds. Among the great performers giving masterclasses at
the Jubilee Hall in Aldeburgh are mezzo-soprano Dame Ann Murray, Nicholas Daniel – probably
our finest living oboist – and pianist Julius Drake.