Britten Pears Arts announces 2025 Aldeburgh Festival programme.
Britten Pears Arts has launched the programme for the 2025 Aldeburgh Festival. The upcoming festival features 20 world premieres across 17 days of events running from 13 to 29 June 2025.
And, hark! their sweet sad voices! ’t is despair
Mingled with love and then dissolved in sound.
These lines from Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound don’t appear in the anthology from which Britten drew several texts for his Nocturne; he chose the section immediately prior (“Since on a poet’s lips I slept…”) to open that great orchestral song cycle. But the inspiration for the connective tissue of so much of this year’s Festival programme is Shelley’s suggestion that music can express what words alone cannot: that it can hold complex, contrasting ideas and emotions, and can make them comprehensible, bearable, and beautiful.
Four featured artists – tenor Allan Clayton, violinist Leila Josefowicz, and composers Helen Grime and Daniel Kidane – are at the heart of this year’s programme, helping to shape the many interweaving strands of its rich and varied offerings. And the extended family of artists who will gather in Suffolk includes: London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Antonio Pappano, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari Oramo, Knussen Chamber Orchestra with Ryan Wigglesworth, ensembles and choirs Gabrieli Consort & Players, Onyx Brass, EXAUDI and the BBC Singers, quartets Doric, Fibonacci, Gildas and Heath, and artists Claire Booth, Anu Komsi, Sophie Bevan, Lotte Betts-Dean, Sam Lee, Benjamin Appl, James Baillieu, Sean Shibe, Ben Goldscheider, Nathan Amaral, Alisa Weilerstein and others, and is testament to the Festival’s continuing vitality and energy.
The Festival opens with the world premiere of Colin Matthews’ new opera A Visit to Friends, with a libretto by William Boyd that takes the Chekhov short story as its inspiration. Continuing its commitment to celebrating contemporary voices, the Festival features 20 world premieres, of which 14 are Britten Pears Arts commissions, in its 17 days including Daniel Kidane’s new String Quartet and new works by Brian Elias, Sasha Scott, Gavin Higgins, Cheryl Frances-Hoad and Tyshawn Sorey.
Aldeburgh Festival Extra! embraces a range of venues in Aldeburgh, including the return of the much-loved Pumphouse venue, as well as the occasional surprise further afield. The Festival Extra! programme features late-night hair-down music, pop-up bars, unexpected treats for foodies, artists in unfamiliar places, and more.
Andrew Comben, Chief Executive, Britten Pears Arts commented, ‘The 76th Aldeburgh Festival offers the opportunity to experience anew music’s transformative power to move, inspire, and connect. Joy, grief, love, loss and so much more, ‘dissolved in sound’ by composers and the artists who bring their work to life. Four featured artists - tenor Allan Clayton, violinist Leila Josefowicz, and composers Helen Grime and Daniel Kidane – are at the heart of this year’s programme, alongside a thrilling mix of opera, orchestras, choirs, singers, chamber music, recitals, films and a fascinating visual arts programme. We are also very excited to present Aldeburgh Festival Extra! in a range of venues across Aldeburgh, including the Pumphouse. The Festival continues to be distinctive and is recognised nationally and internationally for its unique combination of music and place, with events presented in the wonderful surroundings of Snape, Aldeburgh and other Suffolk settings. We look forward to welcoming everyone in June to this special part of the world for an unforgettable celebration of music and the arts.’
The full programme for the 2025 Aldeburgh Festival is available here.