Britten-Pears Orchestra composers are held from March until October. There are also opportunities for emerging young professional musicians to work with leading conductors, soloists and orchestral principals in both the Britten–Pears Orchestra and the Britten–Pears Baroque Orchestra. Many of the masterclasses are open to the public, and each course culminates in a public performance, including at the Aldeburgh Festival and Snape Proms. Auditions are held across the world, now using modern technology to access countries on the other side of the globe. In 2012, the Britten–Pears Orchestra was conducted by Antonello Manacorda, performing Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at Snape Maltings Concert Hall at
John Culshaw commissioned Britten's opera "Owen Wingrave," written expressly for television. He also persuaded Britten to conduct television productions of "Peter Grimes" and Mozart's "Idomeneo", and to accompany Pears in Schubert's "Winterreise". Britten and Pears invited him to Snape, not far from their base at Aldeburgh in Suffolk and he encouraged them to transform the Snape Maltings into a concert-hall. He later initiated the Benson and Hedges music festival at Snape and was planning the fourth season at the time of his death. Some of his BBC programmes have been preserved on DVD, including films of the Amadeus Quartet playing works by