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
Snape branch line the final years of operation the only traffic of any significance was coal and coke for the maltings and seasonal sugar beet traffic. The line closed in 1960 as a result of declining freight revenues. Another factor was the J15 locomotives were life expired (steam had largely disappeared from East Anglia by this time) and the route availability of the line was such that only low speed shunting locomotives would be able to realistically operate the line. The time that these locomotives would take to get to Snape would have affected the timetable on the East Suffolk Line so the