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Britten awards

Helping to bring Britten's music to new audiences.


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The Britten-Pears Foundation is active in the promotion of the music of Benjamin Britten and encourages performances and recordings that would help bring his music to new audiences. This could embrace performances or recordings of the less familiar works, performances in new places or outstanding outreach work done by an established ensemble. The Foundation also wishes to encourage young people (i.e. young professionals or music students) to perform works of Britten, in the hope that this will instil an interest and passion for his music that will be with them through their careers.
 

Scope of the Scheme
The Foundation wishes to emphasise that it is not underwriting costs on projects but supporting them if they meet its promotional objectives. This scheme is open to application and projects will be judged on the degree to which they meet a number of the following questions:
 

  • does your project involve one or more works of Britten that do not often get played?
  • are you performing in a part of the world where Britten's work is unfamiliar to audiences?
  • are you presenting a number of works in a combination or context that will shed new light on them or attract new audiences?
  • are you undertaking special Britten-related outreach work that will introduce his work to new audiences?
  • are you using young professionals or music students in your performances?
  • are you likely to achieve a level of artistic excellence?


The scheme does not however provide a subsidy to cover specific costs such as hire of music or performance royalties.

 
Who can apply

The scheme is open to any organisation or individual(s) who are/is involved in the performance of Britten’s work. 

Size of grants

The Foundation will make a small number of such awards in any year ranging from a few hundred pounds to a few thousand, but no individual award is likely to be above £10,000.


2013 performances

As you may imagine, during the period of celebrations of the centenary of Britten’s birth, there have been many requests for funding and the Foundation has given a significant sum of money to support performances, recordings and conferences through the world. The Board of Trustees have decided that their meeting in March 2013 will be the last at which they will consider funding for 2013 events. Therefore they will only consider applications received up until the 28 February 2013. Any received after that date will not be considered.


How to apply for 2013 performances

Firstly please download the full scheme guidelines, which include our terms and conditions. If you would like to apply for a Britten award, please send details of your forthcoming performance(s) in an e-mail to grants@brittenpears.org. Applications must be received by 28 February 2013 and will be considered at a meeting of BPF trustees in March 2013. 


2014 performances

The Board of Trustees will be considering their approach for supporting performances of Britten’s works due to take place in 2014 and thereafter. For further details please keep reviewing this page or register your interest with grants@brittenpears.org.