George Benjamin's Note of Jubilation
Posted on 16/05/2012
George Benjamin, Professor of Composition at King's, took part in Jubilation: the Music of George Benjamin, a London 2012 Festival countdown event, at the Southbank Centre this weekend.
The weekend Festival celebrated the music of Benjamin, one of the greatest British composers of the 20th century, with its complex tonalities, rhythms and textures. The Festival featured virtuoso concerts drawing from the wide range of Benjamin's music.
Benjamin was actively involved as both conductor and speaker. The Philharmonia Orchestra performed a stunning programme, headlining with Benjamin’s inspired Jubilation, for which the Orchestra collaborated with a fleet of young musicians.
The Festival also featured a special screening of the documentary on the composer, Omnibus: Towards Antara, as well as performances from the London Sinfonietta and members of the Royal Academy of Music.
Professor Benjamin said: ‘It’s a great honour for me to have my work featured in such a way and being part of the Olympic Festival is a great, great pleasure for me.’
George Benjamin joined King's in January 2001, succeeding Sir Harrison Birtwistle as Henry Purcell Professor of Composition.
Born in 1960, Benjamin started to play the piano at the age of seven and began composing almost immediately. In 1976 he entered the Paris Conservatoire to work with Olivier Messiaen (composition) and Yvonne Loriod (piano), after which he completed his studies at King's College Cambridge under Alexander Goehr.
Since his first orchestral piece, Ringed by the Flat Horizon, was performed at the BBC Proms in 1980, his compositions have continued to be performed across the world. In recent years there have been retrospectives of his work in Tokyo, Berlin, Madrid, Paris and Lucerne.
Benjamin has just completed his latest opera, Written on Skin, a collaboration with Martin Crimp which will be premiered in Aix-en-Provence, France in July this year, before coming to London next spring.
For further media information please contact Anna Mitchell anna.i.mitchell@kcl.ac.uk or 0207 848 3092.
Further information on Written on Skin can be found here: http://www.festival-aix.com/en/node/2031
Photo credit: Maurice Foxall