Winner of the 2013 Nei Stëmmen International Singing Competition in Luxembourg, Benjamin was a Choral Scholar at King’s College Cambridge, where he read Philosophy, before studying at the Royal College of Music Vocal Faculty and International Opera School, where he won First Prize in the English Song Competition. Benjamin won Third Prize and the Audience Prize at the CantateBach Competition in Greifswald, Germany, was a Semi-Finalist in the 2014 Kathleen Ferrier Awards, and a Finalist in the 2014 Royal Overseas League Competition. He also won the 2011 Royal Overseas League Competition Ensemble Category with Cries of London. Benjamin has sung Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda, Tassile in Handel’s Alessandro, and Mirtillo in Handel’s Il Pastor Fido in the London Handel Festival with Laurence Cummings. He has understudied roles with English National Opera (Ixbalanqué in Purcell’s The Indian Queen, Bertarido in Handel’s Rodelinda and Seraphim 3 in John Adams’ The Gospel according to the other Mary), Glyndebourne, Scottish Opera, Opera North, and English Touring Opera. Benjamin’s other roles include Ottone in Monteverdi’s The Coronation of Poppea with Ryedale Festival Opera, Tragedy in Jacopo Peri’s Euridice with British Youth Opera, Arsamenes in Handel’s Xerxes with Fitzwilliam Chamber Opera, Hamor in Handel’s Jephtha (Grimeborn), Kaspar in Kaspar Hauser by Alexis Pope (Grimeborn & Tête à Tête), George Saintsbury in The Lovely Ladies by Peter Cowdrey with Opera Unlimited (Buxton Festival), Spirit in Kettlehead by Darren Bloom with Size Zero Opera (Grimeborn & Tête à Tête), and Q in A Sign in Space by Nick Morrish with Gestalt Arts. Concert highlights include Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with Retrospect Ensemble at Wigmore Hall, London; Purcell’s Hail, Bright Cecilia in the State Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia; Bernstein Chichester Psalms with the choir of New College, Oxford in Perugia, Italy; Messiah with Polski Chor Kameralny in Gdansk, Poland; Bach’s Mass in B minor in Logrono, Spain and in Greifswald, Germany; Bach’s St Matthew Passion in Tremerchion, Wales; Handel’s Messiah in Riberac, France; Hasse’s Lucio Papirio (Lucio) and Vivaldi’s La Senna Festeggiante (La Virtu) with Ensemble Serse in London. Benjamin gives recitals throughout the UK, especially in London (St Bride’s Church, Temple Church, Chelsea Old Church, Holy Trinity Sloane Square, St Stephen Walbrook) and his programmes include: Renaissance and Baroque music (Dowland, Danyel, Lambert, Purcell, Cavalli, Handel), 20th Century English Song (Howells, Finzi, Gurney, Quilter, Vaughan-Williams) and Lieder and Mélodie (Duparc, Hahn, Brahms, Schubert, Wolf). Benjamin often collaborates with the composer and pianist Peter Foggitt, who has set for him two song cycles of Edmund Spenser’s Amoretti. Benjamin is Co-Founder and Vocal Consultant of Sloane Square Choral Society, a large amateur choir based in Holy Trinity, Sloane Square. He is also a member of Opera Prelude, with whom he gives lecture recitals about Baroque and Contemporary Opera.
