Page 366 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

Performers have already begun the celebrations; in March, the Royal Albert Hall
hosted the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra conducted by Mike Dixon,

performing music from the 1953 Coronation as part of a Jubilee Concert organised
by Armed Forces charity SSAFA (of which The Queen is Patron).

Elsewhere, St Paul’s Cathedral have been asking young singers to join their ‘Choir
for the Queen’, inviting schools to sing and record a favourite hymn and share online

using the #ChoirfortheQueen hashtag.

Notes have been sounded far beyond the UK, too; in April, school choirs in Quebec,
Canada, performed the work of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and Gustav Holst, to the
visual accompaniment of the Queen’s 1957 and 1959 visits to the country.

The Jubilee promises to be a spectacular musical coming-together of genres,

regions and nations. Here are some of the top UK performers and performances to
listen out for, alongside some suggested home Jubilee listening…

Aldeburgh Festival

June 14; Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Aldeburgh, Suffolk

We’re staying in Suffolk and zooming in on the Aldeburgh Festival, which has
enjoyed a prominent relationship with the Queen.

When Benjamin Britten wrote to Buckingham Palace to see if the Monarch might

open the Festival’s new concert hall, a handwritten reply from The Queen gave a
firm ‘yes’.

And so, in 1967, The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh had lunch with Britten at

The Red House and opened The Maltings.

After it burnt down in 1969, the Queen is said to have personally telephoned the

composer. She returned to Suffolk to open the newly-rebuilt Hall in June 1970.

As part of this year’s Aldeburgh Festival, the BBC Singers and Owain Park will
celebrate the Jubilee with a performance of A Garland For The Queen; it’s a unique
collection of choral pieces by English composers who teamed up to present this

musical gift for the Coronation.