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Career Highlights

Selected Performances, Recordings, Projects

Richard Benjafield
1987-2026

 

2026

The Art of Noise - research project funded by Guildhall School of Music & Drama

Steve Reich’s Tehillim with Colin Currie Group, BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall

Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians with Colin Currie, Robin Michael,GSMD New Music Ensemble, Steve Reich 90th birthday season, Barbican Centre, London

 

 

2016 - 2025 

Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians and Tehillim on tour with Colin Currie Group

Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Carnegie Hall New York, Royal Festival Hall London, Paris Philharmonie, Tokyo Opera City, Shanghai, Beijing, USC Berkeley California, Prague Spring Festival, Milan, Madrid

 

2023

International Double Reed Society Gala Concert (IDRS Conference, Bangkok, Thailand) with Alison Teale (oboe), including music by Dobrinka Tabakova and Harrison Birtwistle

 

Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians recording at Abbey Road Studios, Colin Currie Group

 

2020

Ensemble Bash UK tour, including new music by Sarah Angliss and Colin Riley

 

2017

Return to Ensemble Bash - Cambridge Music Festival concert

 

2016

Philip Glass’s Glassworks with GSMD New Music Ensemble (conductor), BBC Total Immersion, Milton Court and BBC Radio 3

 

2015

Three Strange Angels in John Cage MusicCircus at Wellcome Foundation, London

 

2013

Awarded Fellowship of Guildhall School

 

2012

Three Strange Angels in John Cage Musicircus at English National Opera with Stephen Montague, Alex Julyan, John Paul Jones

 

2009

Xenakis‘s Persephassa (conductor), BBC Total Immersion, Barbican Centre 

 

Appointed Head of Wind, Brass and Percussion, Guildhall School of Music & Drama

2003 - 2008

Percussion Ensemble in Education

Research project at Guildhall School

 

2008

The Stamping Ground Percussion Festival and Happening at Guildhall School

 

Vibraphone soloist in Messiaen’s La Transfiguration with Thierry Fischer, Adam Walker, Colin Currie, Adrian Spillett, BBC NOW, BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall

 

2007

Stephen Montague new work, Aldeburgh Festival on Aldeburgh Beach

 

Motorbike Concerto by Stephen Montague, with James Toseland (Piano), Brands Hatch racing circuit and Kensington Gardens, London

 

2006

Repeating Ourselves - artistic director of Steve Reich Festival, GSMD

 

inna-groove dimensions with Marque Gilmore, National Portrait Gallery, London

 

Steve Reich’s Drumming, BBC Proms  / Radio 3 at Royal Albert Hall, debut concert of Colin Currie Group

 

Three Strange Angels UK tour of Steve Reich’s Sextet and music by Graham Fitkin

 . . . fffadeaway . . . Percussion Festival, Guildhall School and BBC Radio 3 

 

2005

Vinko Globokar’s ¿Corporel?, and Terres Brûlées, Jubilee Hall, Aldeburgh Festival

 

Glockenspiel soloist in Messiaen’s From the Canyons to the Stars / Pierre-Laurent-Aimard /  Northern Sinfonia / Sage Gateshead

 

Adam Gorb’s Percussion Concerto Elements, GSMD Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Tim Reynish (conductor), RNCM

 

DVD recording of Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face with Birmingham Contemporary Music Group

 

This Song Can Come Inside - chapter in The Reflective Conservatoire: Studies in Music Education (Ashgate)

 

2004

GSMD Percussion Ensemble (also soloist and conductor) / BBC John Cage Festival / Barbican Centre and BBC Radio 3 

 

John Cage’s 27’ 10.554” & Child of Tree / Apartment House at Wien Modern, in the Royal Butterfly Conservatory and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s house

 

Three Strange Angels @ Rhythmsticks Festival, South Bank Centre

 

Morton Feldman’s For Philip Guston (4½ hour trio of piano, flute, percussion) /  Royal Academy of Art, London

 

Berio’s Naturale with Paul Silverthorne (Viola), Orford Church, Aldeburgh Festival

 

John Cage MusicCircus at UnCaged, curated by Stephen Montague, Barbican Centre

 

Warp Records tour with London Sinfonietta, Jamie Lidell, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin - music by Varese, Reich, Cage, Antheil

 

 

2003

Carnyx & Co (Sarah Leonard and John Kenny) at Festival Inter-Celtique, France & Scotland

 

Three Strange Angels direct the Buckinghamshire Music Service gala concert, Royal Albert Hall, London

 

2002

Takemitsu’s Munari by Munari  and Feldman’s The King of Denmark, UEA Norwich solo recital

 

Improvisation collaboration in Dublin with Jurgen Simpson (sound diffusion) and Simon Doyle (video artist)

 

2001 

Research project in Ghana recording and interviewing musicians Thomas Segkura, Edmond Tijan, Afadina Atsikpa, Ibrahim Abukari, Meriga Gonjé and Bernard Woma. 

 

Cheltenham Festival recital, Xenakis’s Psappha

 

Solo improvisations to live graphic projections at Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, curated by John Woolrich

 

2000

Ensemble Bash and Master Musicians of Ghana Tour of UK

 

Ensemble Bash CD Damba Moon recorded at Doghouse Studios, Henley-on-Thames

 

Music for 18 Musicians performed at GSMD

 

Conductor of Fanfares across the Thames, dedication ceremony of Millennium Bridge, London

 

1999

Ensemble Bash at Sydney Festival

 

CD recording of Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face with Almeida Ensemble

 

1998

Ensemble Bash Tour of East of England, including new music by Rowland Sutherland and Javier Alvarez

NMC recording with Melinda Maxwell of Holt’s Banshee and Birtwistle’s Pulse Sampler

Ensemble Bash at Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference, Edinburgh (in the presence of HM Queen Elizabeth 2nd, and Nelson Mandela)

 

1997

Ensemble Bash concerts include

Arts Council Contemporary Music Network UK Tour with musicians of Pan African Orchestra and Ghana Dance Ensemble

 

Hong Kong Handover ceremony concert, Hong Kong City Hall, with Hong Kong Percussion Group and Island Sun Drum

 

BBC Proms at Royal Albert Hall, with Joanna MacGregor (piano), including a premiere by Django Bates

 

Aberystwyth International MusicFest

 

1996

UK 20-date tour with Richard Alston Dance Company of Xenakis’s Psappha and Okho

 

1995

Launch, Ensemble Bash Sony Classical album, recorded at Air Studios London

 

Premiere performances of Thomas Adès’s Powder Her Face, Cheltenham Music Festival and Almeida Theatre London 

Ensemble Bash Making More of Music 25-date UK tour, sponsored by BT / NFMS, including premieres by Stewart Copeland, Orphy Robinson, Michael Daugherty, Howard Skempton, Nick Hayes

1994

Ensemble Bash debut CD Slapstick Whipcrack Thundersheet, recorded at Depot Studios, London, Geoff Hilton (producer)

 

1993 

Simon Holt’s Banshee, BBC Radio 3 premiere with Melinda Maxwell (oboe)

 

Ensemble Bash residency at the Unicorn Theatre for children, London

 

Ensemble Bash Spitalfields Festival debut concert, return concert at Purcell Room

 

1992

Debut concert of Ensemble Bash, Purcell Room London, Park Lane Group Young Artist series including premieres by Graham Fitkin and David Osborn

 

Hook by Graham Fitkin recording at CTS Wembley Studios, for Decca Argo label

 

Midnight Oil - Ensemble Bash record John Cage’s Three Constructions for BBC Radio 3

 

1991

Brith Gof Welsh-language theatre company, Govan shipyards

 

1990

Research trip to Ghana, studying with Afadina Atsikpa and Bernard Woma of the Ghana Dance Ensemble (supported by Countess of Munster Musical Trust)

 

Formation of Ensemble Bash

 

1989

Tanglewood Music Festival (English Speaking-Union scholar) with Frank Epstein and John Wyre

 

1988

Graduation from Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) with Philip Jones Prize, and Wind Brass and Percussion Prize.

Teachers: Ian Wright, Graham Johns, Heather Corbett, Ray Lomax

 

James Wood’s Stoicheia, with James Wood and Steven Schick, Darmstadt International Ferienkurse für Neue Musik

Debut concerts with Jane's Minstrels (Jane Manning and Anthony Payne, directors), Almeida Ensemble conducted by James Wood

 

1987

Centre Acanthes, Avignon with Sylvio Gualda, Gerard Pérotin

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