George Benjamin (composer) explained

George Benjamin
Honorific Suffix:CBE
Birth Date:31 January 1960
Birth Place:London, UK

Sir George William John Benjamin, CBE (born 31 January 1960) is an English composer of contemporary classical music. He is also a conductor, pianist and teacher. He is well known for operas Into the Little Hill (2006), Written on Skin (2009–2012) and Lessons in Love and Violence (2015–2017)—all with librettos by Martin Crimp. In 2019, critics at The Guardian ranked Written on Skin as the second best work of the 21st-century.[1]

Biography

Benjamin was born in London and attended Westminster School. He studied piano privately with concert pianist and eminent teacher, Marguerite Tury in 1967–74, wrote his first composition at the age of nine, and took piano and composition lessons with Peter Gellhorn until the age of 15,[2] after which Gellhorn arranged for Benjamin to continue his lessons in Paris with Olivier Messiaen, whom he had known for many years.[3] Messiaen was reported to have described Benjamin as his favourite pupil.[4] He then read music at King's College, Cambridge, studying under Alexander Goehr and Robin Holloway.

His orchestral piece Ringed by the Flat Horizon (written for the Cambridge University Musical Society and premiered in Cambridge under the baton of Mark Elder on 5 March 1980) was performed at The Proms that August, while he was still a student, making him the then youngest living composer to have had music performed at the Proms.[5] The London Sinfonietta and Sir Simon Rattle premiered At First Light two years later.[6]  Antara was commissioned by IRCAM for the 10th anniversary of the Pompidou Centre in 1987[7] and Three Inventions for chamber orchestra were written for the 75th Salzburg Festival in 1995.[8] The London Symphony Orchestra under Pierre Boulez premiered Palimpsests in 2002 to mark the opening of ‘By George’, a season-long portrait which included the first performance of Shadowlines by Pierre-Laurent Aimard.[9] More recent celebrations of Benjamin's work have taken place at Southbank Centre in 2012 (as part of the UK's Cultural Olympiad) and at the Barbican in 2016.[10] [11] Benjamin's first operatic work Into the Little Hill, written with playwright Martin Crimp, was commissioned in 2006 by the Festival d'Automne in Paris. It received its London premiere at the Royal Opera House in February 2009. Their second collaboration, Written on Skin, premiered at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in July 2012. Benjamin conducted the UK premiere at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in March 2013.[12] Lessons in Love and Violence, a third collaboration with Martin Crimp, premiered at the Royal Opera House in 2018.[13] His fourth opera, the 70-minute Picture a Day like this, again with Crimp, was commissioned by and first produced at the Aix Festival at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in 2023; Benjamin conducted with Marianne Crebassa as the woman.[14]

As a conductor, he regularly appears with some of the world's leading ensembles and orchestras, amongst them the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, the Cleveland and Concertgebouw orchestras, and the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie.[15] [16] In 1999, he made his operatic debut conducting Pelléas et Mélisande at la Monnaie, Brussels,[17] and he has conducted numerous world premieres, including works by Wolfgang Rihm, Unsuk Chin, Gérard Grisey, and György Ligeti.[18] [19] [20] In 1993, he curated the first Meltdown music festival in London and in 2010 he was the Music Director of the Ojai Music Festival in California.[21] During the 2018/2019 season, Benjamin was Composer in Residence to the Berliner Philharmoniker.[22]

For sixteen years, Benjamin taught composition at the Royal College of Music, London, where he became the first Prince Consort Professor of Composition before succeeding Sir Harrison Birtwistle as Henry Purcell Professor of Composition at King's College London in January 2001. His pupils include Luke Bedford, Robin de Raaff,[23] and Dai Fujikura.[24]

Honours

In 2019, Benjamin was awarded the Golden Lion Award for lifetime achievement from the Venice Biennale. Other awards include the 2001 Arnold Schönberg Prize,[25] the 2015 Prince Pierre of Monaco composition prize (for his opera Written on Skin),[26] and 2023 the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize.[27] For 2023 he received the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award.[28]

An honorary fellow of King's College Cambridge, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music,[29] Benjamin is also an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society.[30] He was awarded a C.B.E. in 2010,[31] made a Commandeur de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2015,[32] and was knighted in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours.

Personal life

Benjamin now lives in northwest London with his partner, the filmmaker Michael Waldman, whose recent credits include The Day John Lennon Died, The Scandalous Adventures of Lord Byron, and the TV miniseries Musicality.

Works

Source[33]

Opera

Orchestral

Ensemble

Chamber and instrumental

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. News: Clements. Andrew. Maddocks. Fiona. Lewis. John. Molleson. Kate. Service. Tom. Jeal. Erica. Ashley. Tim. 12 September 2019. The best classical music works of the 21st century. The Guardian. 31 May 2021. 0261-3077.
  2. https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000045767?rskey=8DChUf&result=1 Anderson, Julian. 'Benjamin, George (William John)' in Grove Music Online
  3. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/feb/16/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries Obituary, 'Peter Gellhorn' in The Guardian, 16 February 2004
  4. Angelique Chrisafis, "British composer's 20-year opera quest ends with Paris premiere". The Guardian (London), 25 November 2006
  5. Web site: George Benjamin: Overview . online at Composition:Today . Gavin Thomas. 10 March 2013.
  6. Web site: London Symphony Orchestra - Rattle: the exhibition. lso.co.uk. 23 October 2019.
  7. Web site: Antara. www.fabermusic.com. 23 October 2019.
  8. Web site: Three Inventions for Chamber Orchestra. www.fabermusic.com. 23 October 2019.
  9. George Benjamin,"My heroes and I", The Guardian (London), 20 September 2002: He was artistic consultant to the BBC's 3-year retrospective of 20th-century music for the Millennium, 'Sounding the Century'. There have been major retrospectives of his work in London, Pris, Tokyo, Brussels, Berlin, Strasbourg, San Francisco and Madrid.
  10. News: Benjamin at the Barbican, Barbican, London — 'The power of suggestion' . https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/f1a5b354-ef5c-11e5-9f20-c3a047354386 . 10 December 2022. Financial Times. 21 March 2016 . en-GB. 23 October 2019 . subscription . Nepilova . Hannah .
  11. News: Jubilation: The Music of George Benjamin – review. Clements. Andrew. 14 May 2012. The Guardian. 23 October 2019. en-GB. 0261-3077.
  12. News: Written on Skin – review. Jeal. Erica. 10 March 2013. The Guardian. 1 November 2019. en-GB. 0261-3077.
  13. http://www.roh.org.uk/productions/lessons-in-love-and-violence-by-katie-mitchell Lessons in Love and Violence production page at roh.org.uk
  14. Allison, John. Report from Aix-en-Provence. Opera, September 2023, Vol. 74 No. 9, p1063.
  15. Book: Debrett's People of Today 2017. Debrett's Peerage Limited. 2017. Hume. L.. London, U.K.. Credo Reference.
  16. Web site: Concerts and Tours. Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. 29 April 2019.
  17. Web site: George Benjamin. www.nimbusrecords.co.uk. 23 October 2019.
  18. Web site: Hamburg Concerto. englisch. en. 23 October 2019.
  19. News: A guide to Gérard Grisey's music. Service. Tom. 18 March 2013. The Guardian. 23 October 2019. en-GB. 0261-3077.
  20. Web site: Contemporary composer: Unsuk Chin. Dixon. Gavin. 6 February 2018. www.gramophone.co.uk. en. 23 October 2019.
  21. News: Review: eighth blackbird and other new music at Ojai Music Festival. Mark. Swed. Los Angeles Times. 15 June 2009. 15 June 2009.
  22. Web site: Composer in Residence 2018/2019 Berliner Philharmoniker. Philharmoniker. Berliner. www.berliner-philharmoniker.de. en. 23 October 2019. 6 June 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230606015852/https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/titelgeschichten/20182019/composer-in-residence-20182019/. dead.
  23. Web site: Robin De Raaff . 2023-04-25 . brahms.ircam.fr.
  24. Web site: I'm inspired by Stockhausen, Xenakis ... and Seinfeld. Tom Service . . London . 4 February 2005. 10 March 2013. Tom Service.
  25. Web site: George Benjamin Delphian Records. en-GB. 17 October 2019. 17 October 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20191017162738/http://delphianrecords.co.uk/person/george-benjamin/. dead.
  26. Web site: Fondation Prince Pierre de Monaco. www.fondationprincepierre.mc. 17 October 2019.
  27. Web site: Komponist George Benjamin erhält Ernst von Siemens Musikpreis - neue musikzeitung . . 31 January 2023 . de . 2023-01-31.
  28. https://www.frontiersofknowledgeawards-fbbva.es/ BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award 2023
  29. Web site: George Benjamin. www.nimbusrecords.co.uk. 17 October 2019.
  30. Web site: George Benjamin. Royal Philharmonic Society. en-GB. 17 October 2019.
  31. Announcement in The London Gazette, Issue 59446, 12 June 2010, p. 7
  32. Web site: George Benjamin Guest at Composers' Club. barenboimsaid.de. en. 17 October 2019.
  33. Web site: George Benjamin - Works. www.fabermusic.com. 1 November 2019.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "George Benjamin (composer)".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.