Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Redbird Scholar

Publication Date

Spring 2022

Abstract

For much of the duration of my residency last year as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar to the United Kingdom, I was ensconced in Aldeburgh, a town two hours northeast of London on the Suffolk coast. The medieval fishing village is the home of the Britten Pears Arts Archive (BPAA), the largest archive dedicated to a single composer in the world. The archive takes its name from the lifelong romantic and career partnership of composer Benjamin Britten (1913–1976) and tenor Peter Pears (1910–1986), emerging from its first incarnation as the Britten–Pears Library and situated on the grounds of their home, The Red House. A couple for nearly four decades, their collaborations were at the center of midcentury English music and culture. Just as significantly, Britten and Pears founded the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts in 1948, and it is writing the history of this Festival—during their lifetimes—that has formed my primary Fulbright project.

Comments

This article was originally published in Redbird Scholar, the research magazine of the Illinois State University Office Research and Graduate Studies. Redbird Scholar Volume 7, No. 2 (Spring 2022), https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/rsp_redscholar/

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