GLYNDEBOURNE

John Christie and his opera singer wife, Audrey Mildmay, founded the Glyndebourne Festival in 1934. Today the Festival runs from May to August with a programme of six operas and together with the Tour, which runs throughout England from October to December, Glyndebourne presents about 120 live performances each year to a total audience of around 150,000.

As part of its mission to reach new audiences, Glyndebourne has maintained a widely respected education programme since 1986 and delivers a year round programme of activity aimed at enhancing understanding and enjoyment of opera.

Projects include main-stage community operas involving amateur performers from the local area, dedicated Performances for Schools to give students access to full length, fully-staged operas for a fraction of the usual price, workshops for people with early to moderate-stage dementia and their carers, and the Glyndebourne Youth Opera programme, a project for local young people aged 9-19 to learn the key skills required for performing and devising opera.

In addition, the education department has been responsible for a large percentage of Glyndebourne’s new commissions, many of which are presented on the main stage.

Visit glyndebourne.com to find out more about other current and past projects. 

If you’re new to opera, young or old, it’s also worth visiting operaland.org –Glyndebourne’s interactive introduction to the art form.

For its education work Glyndebourne receives valuable financial support from Arts Council England, a number of Trusts and Foundations, and individual benefactors.