On 9 September, we officially welcomed our new CEO Andrew Comben to the Britten Pears Arts team.

What’s the most exciting part about starting your new role at Britten Pears Arts?

Coming back to this organisation after twenty years and witnessing at first-hand the extraordinary growth that has taken place, is so exciting and there is opportunity everywhere. But what is also clear is the way in which this organisation, through Jonathan Reekie’s and Roger Wright’s inspired leadership, has continued to hold on to the values of our founders – excellence and inclusion go hand in hand as much now as ever and our wonderful audiences remain open to new music in a way that is rare and precious.

How has your previous experience at the Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival prepared you for this role at Britten Pears Arts?

I’ve learned a huge amount over the last sixteen years at Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival, particularly about the way a large arts organisation can play a vital role in communities and work alongside other partners to create great places to live. And in working across diverse genres and with leading artists from visual art, theatre, dance and music it has been exciting to find the connections between artforms and encourage audiences to try something new. I’ve also been engaged in a major capital project restoring the Grade I listed Corn Exchange, with all the twists and turns that building projects encounter, which has, I hope, prepared me for just some of the opportunities and challenges ahead as we embark on a programme of work at Snape Maltings and The Red House.

What do you see as the biggest challenges and opportunities for Britten Pears Arts in the current cultural landscape?

The arts in the UK face an existential threat of a diminishing pipeline of people able and prepared to work – talent is everywhere but the conditions and the opportunity to pursue a career, both onstage and off, are even more challenging now than previously. The Britten Pears Young Artist Programme and our Artist Residencies offer a unique opportunity to develop and grow, while being connected to a vital platform with intelligent and sensitive audiences. I hope we can play an even more critical role in nurturing the artists of the future and offering a vision of possibility for all who want to pursue their creative aspirations.

If you could only listen to one Benjamin Britten composition for the rest of your life, which one would it be and why?

Oh, that’s unfair… But although I might instinctively choose Peter Grimes, A Midsummer Night’s Dream or Billy Budd, my very first experience of singing Britten as a boy was Hymn to St Cecilia and I’ve never forgotten the thrill of music and text so closely aligned. I would never tire of it.

What’s a hobby or interest you have that might surprise people who know you only through your work in the arts?

Our son is almost nine years old and something of a birdwatcher – one of the main attractions for him in moving to Suffolk was the fact we’d be able to see Curlews and Avocets. I wouldn’t have expected I’d be so interested but being out in North Warren or the Alde estuary can’t help but convert you to an appreciation of observing wildlife in this incredible landscape. Mobile signal is so scarce there and it helps to switch off…!

If you could collaborate with any artist, living or dead, for a Britten Pears Arts project, who would it be and what kind of project would you create?

Of course there are lots I’m actively discussing with great artists of today, so I obviously won’t tell you about any of those! But I’d love to have worked for the English Opera Group and the extraordinary singers, creative teams and instrumentalists it brought together. Many years later, I was lucky enough to work with Colin Graham and a number of singers from various points in EOG’s history, and they would recount the energy that came from discovering a genuine sense of company and instinctive musical interaction. That way of working is something artists still crave, yet the industry today makes it even more difficult to foster. I’d like to think we can get closer to it than many other organisations.

Since moving to Suffolk, have you discovered any hidden gems or local spots that you now love to visit?

Yes! It hardly counts as hidden when we promote it so enthusiastically, but the walk from Snape Maltings to Iken wasn’t boarded when I was here last, so it feels like a new discovery for me. It is utterly magical.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring three albums with you, which ones would make the cut?

I’m sure Desert Island Discs guests get eight records… But, Ann Murray and Graham Johnson’s Schubert album (for possibly the most exquisite Nacht und Träume recorded) and Pygmalion’s (Raphael Pichon conducting) Bach St Matthew Passion which is just astonishing in intensity and drama. But the last one has to be something recorded right before I’m stranded, by composers and musicians working today. In my first weeks at Britten Pears Arts I’ve been lucky enough to witness the Composition & Performance Course led by Claire Booth, Colin Matthews and Mark-Anthony Turnage. The work produced in just over a week by Hy-Khang Dang, Jasper Eaglesfield, Mingdu Li, Sam Rudd-Jones, Alex Tay and Liucilé Vilimaité was phenomenal and gave a unique perspective on the way young artists are responding to the world around them. We need new voices more than ever and I’d just have to hope I wasn’t stranded for too long!