‘You know, had Britten and Pears pitched up on Dragons’ Den with their idea for turning a disused malting house into a concert hall, they’d have been turned away,” says Roger Wright. “There was no business plan!”
But what began with Benjamin Britten’s straightforward idea of transforming a former industrial building by the River Alde in Snape into a hall big enough to house orchestral concerts and operas for his Aldeburgh festival, has, over the decades since, developed into a centre, not just for concerts, but for all the other year-round activities that come under the umbrella of Britten Pears Arts (BPA).