Benjamin Britten

Britten was born in Lowestoft in 1913, the son of a dentist, and showed talent early enough to study with Frank Bridge before entering the Royal College of Music. A cappella choral work A Boy Was Born brought him public attention in 1934, but the 1945 premiere of Peter Grimes was the leap - international fame, and over the next 28 years he wrote 14 more operas, from large-scale works for Covent Garden to spare chamber pieces like The Turn of the Screw. He composed with specific performers in mind, most often the tenor Peter Pears, his personal and professional partner, but also for Kathleen Ferrier, Rostropovich, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, and others. With Pears and Eric Crozier he founded the Aldeburgh Festival in 1948 and built Snape Maltings concert hall in 1967. In 1976 he became the first composer given a life peerage; he died that December, 63 years old.