Benjamin Bayl • Conductor • Biography

Benjamin Bayl - Biography

Benjamin Bayl is a gifted young conductor equally at home in modern and historical repertoire. His skill and flair in working with period instrument ensembles, modern orchestras and opera houses has led to recent engagements with Symfoniorkester Norrlandsoperan, Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, The Hanover Band and Aalborg Symfoniorkester, all of which resulted in immediate re-invitations for the 2011/2012 season. Other current and recent season highlights include invitations to Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique et Lyrique de Nancy, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, Gävle Symfoniorkester and Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester.

In the world of opera, he made his debuts with Opera Australia in a new production of Orlando, and with English Touring Opera in a critically acclaimed Ariodante. He also conducted Dido & Aeneas in Split and Zagreb Summer Festivals, Arne’s Judgment of Paris at the Wigmore Hall and Gluck’s Il parnaso confuso at London’s South Bank Centre (both with Bampton Classical Opera). Having conducted Handel’s Brockes Passion at the Wratislavia Festival in Poland, Benjamin will return there to conduct next season. Following the success of L’incoronazione di Poppea for Københavns Musikteater last summer, he will return in 2013 to conduct Cavalli’s Gli amori d’Apollo e di Dafne. The 2012/2013 season also includes Agrippina for Opera de Oviedo, and Purcell’s Fairy Queen with Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (in a new version by composer Helmut Oehring and co-conducted by Michael Boder) at Staatsoper Berlin.

Contemporary music also features in Benjamin’s repertoire. He made his first commercial disc as a conductor, recording works of Hindemith with the Britten Sinfonia for Signum Classics, which was awarded five stars in the BBC Music Magazine. He also conducted the European premiere of Sir John Tavener’s Lament for Jerusalem with the Orchestra of the City and has conducted works by Einojuhani Rautavaara, Elliott Carter, Judith Weir and Jonathan Dove.

He has worked widely in the world of opera and oratorio as assistant conductor and chorusmaster, building up lasting relationships with important opera houses and conductors — most notably in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Paris, Strasbourg, Copenhagen, London and Sydney, with conductors including Maazel, Gardiner, Bolton, Bicket and Hickox, in repertoire as diverse as Monteverdi, Handel, Mozart, Bizet and Verdi.

Benjamin was Assistant Conductor to Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra, Assistant Artistic Director to Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort (making conducting debuts with them in London and Rome), and has collaborated with Daniel Harding (Otello) and Yannick Nézet-Séguin / Mahler Chamber Orchestra (a recording of Don Giovanni with Deutsche Grammophon), and Emmanuelle Haïm with Le concert d’Astrée / Opéra National de Paris (Giulio Cesare). He worked with the acclaimed Danish director Kasper Holten on Juan, a new feature film based on Don Giovanni. With British Youth Opera he made his debut in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, conducting Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

He founded and conducts the dynamic period instrument ensemble, The Saraband Consort. They recently made their Wigmore Hall debut and appeared in various festivals including the ‘Martes Musicales’ Vitoria and ‘Aste Nagusia’ Bilbao Festivals. He also performs, tours and records with Concerto Copenhagen, Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, The Sixteen, Gabrieli Consort, Staatskapelle Halle, His Majesties Sagbutts & Cornetts, and The English Concert.

Benjamin was born in Sydney in 1978 and studied at King’s College Cambridge, where he was Organ Scholar. He is an alumnus of the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, National Opera Studio, Schola Cantorum Basel and The Royal Academy of Music where he studied conducting with Colin Metters, Sir Colin Davis and George Hurst on the Sir Charles Mackerras Scholarship.

He is also committed to education work, regularly coaching students from music schools in Dubrovnik and Split. Other future projects include a recital with Sara Mingardo at the Wigmore Hall, working on Alceste at the Royal Danish Opera, and Cavalli’s Giasone at Drottningholms Slottsteater, Stockholm (with plans to conduct his own production in 2014); conducting Haydn’s Creation in Oviedo in 2013, and Bach’s St.Matthew Passion for Symfoniorkester Norrlandsoperan in Easter 2014.

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