School visits
Benjamin Britten cared passionately about encouraging and nurturing musical talent in schools, and wrote many of his best-loved works specifically for children. Today we aim to continue that tradition, using the unique resources of The Red House and its collections to inspire the next generation of composers and performers.
We welcome visits from educational groups of all ages from Year 5 through to VI form and university. As well as free admission, we provide free taught sessions, which are tailored to meet the needs of each visiting group.
Bespoke visits on other topics
We are always happy to think about new ways we can use our vast archive we have to help teachers illustrate particular aspects of the music curriculum, and those of other subjects too. In fact, our preferred way of developing new resources that might be of wider use is to start with specific requests.
These have recently included:
- a session for Year 7 pupils studying cyclic patterns in non-Western music, in which we drew on Britten's fascination with Balinese gamelan music to stimulate a group composition based on a five-note scale from The Prince of the Pagodas;
- a session for VI form students on the composition process for Peter Grimes, including evidence for Britten's conscious use of Purcell as a model for setting English text.
Enquiries and booking
If you are interested in bringing an educational group to The Red House, or have ideas for a visit that you would like to discuss, please contact Kevin Gosling by email or on 01728 451700.
Explore an animated timeline of Britten's life