EASTERN PROMISES
Aldeburgh Music’s chief executive Roger Wright on his future plans
JUST A FEW MONTHS after I began at Aldeburgh, we had the unexpected opportunity to buy the whole of the
Snape Maltings site. Though this wasn’t something Britten ever imagined happening, as far back as 1970 he had a ‘master plan’ to increase the site’s yearround activity. This new land will help us do that. While we bring the derelict buildings back to life, we can also reconsider how we are using the existing buildings.
The development will have three elements. We want to increase our accommodation for students and tutors to around 80 rooms, which will also allow us to house large ensembles for longer periods. Additional music studios will allow us to provide more residencies to musicians and composers. We’re also working with a number of academic and healthcare partners to create groundbreaking projects with Parkinson’s and dementia patients, and to forge new partnerships with our local community. These projects require flexible, characterful spaces, which we want to spread across the site.
One of the reasons I believe the Arts Council gave us a £2m grant is that they recognised that, by making the most of the opportunity to increase the size of our site, we could create new revenue streams. These spaces have a commercial value in terms of letting, and the profits would feed back into the charity, just as the revenue from our retail projects does.
Snape Maltings is an extraordinary place, surrounded by an area of outstanding natural beauty, with beautiful listed buildings, in a nature conservation area. We need to find ways to make all of that work together in the most efficient and exciting ways, while maintaining the special character that Britten, Pears and Imogen Holst created 50 years ago.