Philip Reed is an independent scholar whose many publications include co-editing six volumes of Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976; Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd (edited with Mervyn Cooke); The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears, 1936-78 and On Mahler and Britten, as well as contributions to studies of Britten's operas and War Requiem, and books on Poulenc and Elizabeth Maconchy. Justin Vickers is Distinguished Professor of Music at Illinois State University. He is presently completing The Aldeburgh Festival: A History of the Britten and Pears Era, 1948-1986, and with Philip Reed he is editing Britten's Sketchbooks, a forthcoming collection of essays. Vickers co-edited Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary since 1900 with Joy H. Calico, and Elizabeth Maconchy in Context with Lucy Walker. He is also co-editor of Benjamin Britten in Context and Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on An Inexplicit Art, both with Vicki P. Stroeher.

• Introduction by Philip Reed & Justin VickersAcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsPart I: Let's Make a Festival!1. To Birmingham by way of Beachy Head2. Laying the Foundations: From Group to Festival 3. Aldeburgh - Setting the Local Stage4. The Administrative Framework5. Setting the Pattern, 1947-19486. Consolidation7. Second Time Round - 19498. 1950 and the Run-up to the Festival of Britain 19519. The Festival of Britain 195110. The Danish Connection - 195211. The Year of the Floods - 195312. The Wind of Change - 195413. The End of the Beginning - 1955Part II: Correspondence: Aldeburgh and After (1948-78)Appendix: Happy Birthday, Sir Peter Pears! (1980) by Elizabeth SweetingIndex

Philip Reed is an independent scholar whose many publications include co-editing six volumes of Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976; Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd (edited with Mervyn Cooke); The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears, 1936-78 and On Mahler and Britten, as well as contributions to studies of Britten's operas and War Requiem, and books on Poulenc and Elizabeth Maconchy. Justin Vickers is Distinguished Professor of Music at Illinois State University. He is presently completing The Aldeburgh Festival: A History of the Britten and Pears Era, 1948-1986, and with Philip Reed he is editing Britten's Sketchbooks, a forthcoming collection of essays. Vickers co-edited Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary since 1900 with Joy H. Calico, and Elizabeth Maconchy in Context with Lucy Walker. He is also co-editor of Benjamin Britten in Context and Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on An Inexplicit Art, both with Vicki P. Stroeher.

• Introduction by Philip Reed & Justin VickersAcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsPart I: Let's Make a Festival!1. To Birmingham by way of Beachy Head2. Laying the Foundations: From Group to Festival 3. Aldeburgh - Setting the Local Stage4. The Administrative Framework5. Setting the Pattern, 1947-19486. Consolidation7. Second Time Round - 19498. 1950 and the Run-up to the Festival of Britain 19519. The Festival of Britain 195110. The Danish Connection - 195211. The Year of the Floods - 195312. The Wind of Change - 195413. The End of the Beginning - 1955Part II: Correspondence: Aldeburgh and After (1948-78)Appendix: Happy Birthday, Sir Peter Pears! (1980) by Elizabeth SweetingIndex

Philip Reed is an independent scholar whose many publications include co-editing six volumes of Letters from a Life: The Selected Letters of Benjamin Britten, 1913-1976; Benjamin Britten: Billy Budd (edited with Mervyn Cooke); The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears, 1936-78 and On Mahler and Britten, as well as contributions to studies of Britten's operas and War Requiem, and books on Poulenc and Elizabeth Maconchy. Justin Vickers is Distinguished Professor of Music at Illinois State University. He is presently completing The Aldeburgh Festival: A History of the Britten and Pears Era, 1948-1986, and with Philip Reed he is editing Britten's Sketchbooks, a forthcoming collection of essays. Vickers co-edited Childhood and the Operatic Imaginary since 1900 with Joy H. Calico, and Elizabeth Maconchy in Context with Lucy Walker. He is also co-editor of Benjamin Britten in Context and Benjamin Britten Studies: Essays on An Inexplicit Art, both with Vicki P. Stroeher.

• Introduction by Philip Reed & Justin VickersAcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsPart I: Let's Make a Festival!1. To Birmingham by way of Beachy Head2. Laying the Foundations: From Group to Festival 3. Aldeburgh - Setting the Local Stage4. The Administrative Framework5. Setting the Pattern, 1947-19486. Consolidation7. Second Time Round - 19498. 1950 and the Run-up to the Festival of Britain 19519. The Festival of Britain 195110. The Danish Connection - 195211. The Year of the Floods - 195312. The Wind of Change - 195413. The End of the Beginning - 1955Part II: Correspondence: Aldeburgh and After (1948-78)Appendix: Happy Birthday, Sir Peter Pears! (1980) by Elizabeth SweetingIndex