Links
Academic

Recent Publications:

'Music as Mirror: Reflections of Biography and Identity in the Music of Louis Lewandowski', in Jewishness, Jewish Identity and Music Culture in 19th-Century Europe (Ad Parnassum Studies 2020)

Music and Letters Book Review, Composing Capital, Classical Music in the Neoliberal Era (2020)

'The British Symphony Orchestra and the Arts Council of Great Britain, Examining the Orchestra in its Economic and Institutional Environments', book chapter in Oxford University Press volume Global Perspectives on Orchestras (2017).

The December 2013 issue of 'The Musical Times' includes Benjamin's article,'The SPNM 1943 - 1975: a retrospective'. Details can be found here.

Recent conference papers have explored the Musicians' Union (Glasgow 2016), nineteenth-century Jewish choral music (Leeds 2015), the life of Louis Lewandowski (Rome 2015), the career of Alick Maclean (NABMSA 2014), Ewan MacColl's 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' (Popmac 2013), the place of new opera at the Royal Opera House in the post-war period (NABMSA 2012), and  British attitudes to censorship after the Second World War (RMA/King's College London, 2012).

Benjamin Wolf's PhD thesis is available for download from the British Library's Ethos system. You can find it here. If you have any problems please use the contact form on this website.

Next Appearance

Performances are currently on hold due to Covid-19. Watch this space for future plans, which should include interfaith performances in Cambridge and London, the next European Jewish Choral Festival in Sofia, and the next Montefiore heritage concert.

 

Music Downloads

You can download recordings from Itunes, Amazon and other sources. Here are some of Benjamin's recordings:

Bendigamos (bOYbershop)

 

Zemel Goes Stateside

Todah V'Zimrah (Belsize Square)

Composition

The Etz Chayim Cello Concerto was written for the 70th anniversary of Belsize Square Synagogue. It was described as an 'individual sound world of colour and incisive brilliance' (Jewish Renaissance Magazine April 2009). You can download the concerto using the link on this page. Recorded live with the Wallace Ensemble and cellist Gemma Rosefield.

Latest News: download the latest bOYbershop album (Bendigamos). Click on the link to the right.

Benjamin Wolf works as a conductor, pianist, composer, singer and academic. He is Musical Director of the Royal Free Music Society, the Zemel Choir, the Wallace Ensemble and Belsize Square Synagogue. In addition he is a regular conductor of the Quorum chamber choir. Performances with the Zemel Choir have included appearances at the new European Jewish Choral Festivals (created by the choir in 2012), Holocaust memorial services for the Mayor of London, concerts at the South Bank and St John’s Smith Square, broadcasts for the BBC’s Songs of Praise and Newsnight, and tours to Europe, Israel and the USA. Activities with the Wallace Ensemble have included performances at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, while the professional choir of Belsize Square Synagogue has been featured on BBC radio and television (most recently in February 2015). Benjamin has also been involved in organising and conducting two major interfaith services at Westminster Abbey (featuring the Zemel and Belsize choirs): the ‘Service of Solemn Remembrance and Hope on the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht’ (2014) and a special service commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau (2015). Both the Zemel and Belsize choirs have also performed at the International Louis Lewandowski Festival in Berlin. Performances with the Royal Free have included large-scale oratorios such as Mendelssohn’s Elijah and a tour to Genoa in spring 2015 (to which they will return in May 2016).

As composer, he has written music for the concert hall and the stage, including works using the texts and modes of Ancient Greek, a piano concerto and a cello concerto commissioned for the 70th anniversary of Belsize Square synagogue. He has written a number of pieces for the Zemel Choir, created new instrumental works for the Chichester Festival in 2013 and 2014, and performed a revised version of his piano concerto in April 2015. As pianist, he works as both accompanist and solo recitalist, while his singing is primarily focussed on performances with his own Jewish barbershop quartet, bOYbershop, for which he has written a number of arrangements and original compositions, including comic songs The Only Jewish Cowgirl and Fifty Shades of Hay. This quartet has recently performed at the Chichester Festival and the Sacrées Journées de Strasbourg (November 2015) and released a new album entitled Bendigamos, which includes many of his arrangements.

Following the award of a PhD in 2010, he worked as a visiting lecturer at Royal Holloway and Senior Associate Teacher at Bristol University. In 2011 he was appointed as Lecturer in Music at Regent’s University, London, where he teaches academic courses and runs the choirs of the Regent’s School of Drama, Film and Media. He has given conference papers in the UK and America, and was on the organising team for a conference at the IMR in January 2013 (focussing on music in twentieth-century Britain). He has also worked as a researcher on a Royal Holloway project investigating the use of music to accompany silent films.