Page 639 - Aldeburgh Festival 2022 FINAL COVERAGE BOOK

Image caption,The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh formally opened the Snape Maltings
concert hall in 1967, with Britten (far right) showing them around

Benjamin Britten

• Benjamin Britten was born in Lowestoft, Suffolk in 1913
• He went to Gresham's School in Holt, Norfolk, before entering the Royal College of
Music in 1930
• Began writing documentary music for the GPO film unit in 1935
• He met tenor Peter Pears in 1937, beginning a lifelong creative and personal
partnership
• Britten founded the annual Aldeburgh Festival at the church in Snape in 1948
• In 1965 he came up with the idea of using one of the old maltings buildings in Snape
as a concert hall
• His celebrated works include Peter Grimes, War Requiem and The Turn of The
Screw
• Maggi Hambling's Scallop sculpture on Aldeburgh beach commemorates Britten