Cellist and Composer

Ben is currently a fourth year undergraduate student of cello at the Royal Academy of Music in London. As a soloist and chamber musician, Ben has had the opportunity to perform at a range of high-profile venues such as the Howard Assembly Rooms in Leeds and the Purcell Room in London as well as chamber/solo appearances at Ryedale Festival in Yorkshire. In May 2017, he performed the rarely heard Concerto in C Minor Op. 66 by Nikolai Myaskovsky with the City of Leeds Youth Orchestra, and in the summer of 2019, alongside Xenophon Kelsey and the Vacation Chamber Orchestra, gave five performances of Dvorak’s Silent Woods and “performed this gentle piece with elegance and care” according to a review in the Harrogate Advertiser. When life returns to normal following the pandemic, he will also perform Ligeti’s Cello Concerto with Ryan Bair and the Audentia Ensemble. As an orchestral musician, Ben has had the chance to play under the direction of world renowned conductors such as Marin Alsop, Robert Trevino, Edward Gardner, Jac van Steen, John Wilson, Carlos Miguel Prieto, and Thomas Ades. This has led him to perform at venues such as the Barbican, Leeds Town Hall, Bridgewater Hall Manchester,Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, Birmingham Symphony Hall, as well as at the BBC Proms and the Berlioz Festival, France in summer 2017. In doing so, he has performed key orchestral works such as Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 and Elgar’s Enigma Variations. Ben firmly believes that it is important to not only keep to the conventional paths of classical music. He is a keen composer and has recently completed his piece 5 Haiku for soprano and cello as well as a Viola Concerto. As a member of the S.O.L. Collective, he recorded on the 2019 album Reveries (https://open.spotify.com/album/ 66stYiV8ONrJMyz6xx3war?si=RC2v6SFuSj-_DovTWaM7Bw) and is currently working on an album of film music with guitarist Ollie Clark.