In April 2025 Benjamin was appointed Artistic Partner and Creative Associate of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century in the Netherlands, having directed the orchestra in Haydn’s La fedeltà premiata with the Dutch National Opera Academy this Spring. He returns to conduct O18C’s Nozze di Figaro production this coming Autumn (opening at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw), and will take a wider role with the organisation in the coming seasons, curating and also composing new work.
Next Spring Benjamin conducts the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in their main series at Tivoli Vredenburg Utrecht, conducting a programme of Haydn, Stravinsky and Wagner alongside the world premiere of a new work the orchestra have commissioned him to write for orchestra and mezzo-soprano (Maria Warenberg). Earlier in the season he will conduct the Asko Schoenberg Ensemble in Shelter (with installation by lighting designer Boris Acket), the by Julia Wolfe, David Lang and Michael Gordon.
This past season 2024/25 Benjamin has been Conductor Fellow at the NDR Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, assisting Alan Gilbert and several guest conductors on projects including Gurrelieder and Wozzeck. He returned to conduct the North Netherlands Philharmonic, this time in their main series and including in the programme his own composition Heroic Dreamscape Fantasy. Having last season assisted Matthew Aucoin on Boston Lyric Opera’s production of Eurydice (also covering the countertenor role) and on the Peter Sellars production of Music for New Bodies at the Aspen Festival, in Spring 2025 he assists him on the Juilliard School production of Dialogues des Carmélites.
In the past two years Benjamin has conducted productions of Cosi fan tutte, Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro, and Janacek’s Wandering of a Little Soul, and concerts with the North Netherlands Orchestra, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, and with members of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. He has assisted at most of the Dutch orchestras, the Belgian National, and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and was mentored on the master’s course by Jac van Steen, Ed Spanjaard, Antony Hermus and formerly by the late Kenneth Montgomery.
In 2023 he was selected for the Mahler Conducting Competition in Bamberg, attracting attention as a burgeoning conductor and accompanying juror Barbara Hannigan as part of a concert for Marina Mahler’s 80th birthday. Hannigan then invited Benjamin to assist her with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia di Roma (and again accompany her in recital) at the Spoleto Festival (Italy). He has previously participated in masterclasses at Tanglewood, Snape Maltings’ Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme with Marin Alsop, the Gstaad Festival Academy with Jaap van Zweden and Johannes Schlaefli, the Grafenegg Festival with Martyn Brabbins and Christian Jost.
A 2021 Metropolitan Opera National Council District Winner, he has performed as a vocal soloist with many leading orchestras in the US, including the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, Atlanta Opera, and the Columbus and Phoenix Symphonies, and this season sings in Messiah at Lincoln Center.
In December 2023 he conducted the world premiere of his winter cantata, Any of Those Decembers, commissioned by Lyric Fest in Philadelphia. A year earlier he conducted the world premiere of his opera NIGHTTOWN (based on James Joyce’s Ulysses) at Lowell House Opera, who commissioned the score and libretto. NIGHTTOWN went on to win The 2023 American Prize in Composition and an ASCAP Award – the latter also awarded for his first opera, The Sleeping Beauty, a new opera for family audiences, which premiered to sold-out audiences in NY and NJ with a cast that featured several Metropolitan Opera singers. He has also had works performed at the Vienna Musikverein and Carnegie Hall, and by the Rochester Philharmonic and Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra. At age 16, Benjamin won 1st prize as conductor/composer at Grafenegg’s Ink Still Wet programme, going on to conduct the Tonkuenstler-Orchester Wien. He also won the Leonard Bernstein Memorial Conducting Competition, leading to an engagement conducting the Boston Pops at age 18.
Benjamin is fluent in Spanish and proficient in German, with knowledge of French, Italian, and Dutch. He joined Intermusica’s mentor scheme in Autumn 2023.
April 2025. 730 words. Not to be altered without permission.