In 2024/25 Benjamin is Assistant Conductor to Alan Gilbert at the NDR Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, assisting him on multiple projects, notably Gurrelieder and Wozzeck. He retains his base in the Netherlands, embarking upon a new two-year relationship with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century to conduct Haydn’s opera La fedelita premiata in the Dutch National Opera Academy production alongside curating, composing, assisting and conducting further projects. He returns to conduct the North Netherlands Philharmonic, this time in their main series and including in the programme his own composition Heroic Dreamscape. 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 Aspen, in Spring 2025 he assists him on the Juilliard School production of Dialogue des Carmelites.
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 and at the Belgian National, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Ulster orchestras, 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 (and again accompany her in recital) at the Spoleto Festival (Italy) with the Orchestra di Santa Cecilia di Roma. 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 Christmas Cantata 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 an American Prize 2024 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.
614 words as of 25.7.24. Not to be altered without permission.