Biography

Benjamin Wallfisch studied conducting with Vernon Handley, Sir Charles Mackerras and Bruno Weil. He was awarded First Prize in the 2001 British Reserve Insurance Conducting Competition with a unanimous vote from both Jury and Orchestra. At the age of 22, He was appointed Associate Conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra and between 2003 and 2005 was Assistant Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. During this time he assisted some of the world’s greatest conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Valery Gergiev, Edo de Waart and Leonard Slatkin and frequently conducted the NRPO in venues including the Concertgebouw, De Doelen Rotterdam and the Muziekcentrum Vredenburg, Utrecht and in numerous studio recordings.

In the UK, Ben has conducted the City of London Sinfonia, London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia and London Symphony Chorus and has performed in venues such as the Barbican, Cadogan Hall, Royal Festival Hall, LSO St. Luke’s and St. George’s Bristol. In 2005 Ben made his Australian debut conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in a series of critically acclaimed live broadcast Gala performances at the Sydney Opera House. He recently conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a series of studio recordings for Dreamworks and will be conducting the Orchestra of Opera North for his debut release on Chandos. Acclaimed by The Strad as “one of the finest accompanists anywhere on the podium”, Ben has performed concerti with some of the world's finest soloists in including Evelyn Glennie, Freddy Kempf, Dame Felicity Lott, Branford Marsalis, Igor Oistrach, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and John Williams. Of his recent Quartz release of Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto with Ruth Palmer and the Philharmonia, Robert Matthew-Walker of International Record Review said “If I hear a greater record of Shostakovich’s music this year, I shall be astonished”.

Other guest conducting engagements include those with the Bavarian Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Bretagne, Hamburg Symphony, Staatskapelle Weimar, Tivoli Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra and an appearance in the 2007 Mecklenburg Festival. Highlights of the 2007/2008 season included a re-invitation to conduct the Hamburg Symphony in their 50th anniversary subscription series in a programme including a newly-commissioned work by Benjamin and Rimsky Korsakov’s Scheherazade, as well as a debut performance with the Netherlands Symphony Orchestra. 2008/9 sees Benjamin conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Hamburg Symphony in Beethoven's 9th Symphony, as well as appearances in the 2009 Crested Butte Festival in Colarado and the 2009 May Janacek Festival.