Roger Benedict
violist - conductor
Biography - Solo Performance
As a viola soloist Roger Benedict has appeared with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Ulster Orchestra in the UK as well as the Sydney Symphony in Australia and the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa in Japan. For BBC Radio Three he has recorded Walton’s Viola Concerto, Vaughan-Williams’ Flos Campi and Michael Berkeley’s Viola Concerto, of which he gave the highly acclaimed world premiere performances with Leonard Slatkin at the Royal Festival Hall and the Brighton and Lichfield Festivals.
For ABC Classic FM in Australia he makes frequent broadcasts as a soloist. He has performed Richard Strauss’s Don Quixote many times, including performances with Lynn Harrell at the Royal Festival Hall and with Steven Isserlis at the Edinburgh Festival, and has also recorded the work for CD. With the Sydney Symphony he gave performances of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in 2002 and 2004, Berlioz’s Harold in Italy in November 2005, and Andrew Ford’s The Unquiet Grave in March 2007. He will play Vaughan-Williams Flos Campi in 2009.
His solo repertoire is wide ranging; in addition to performances of the standard works by Mozart, Walton, Bartok and Berlioz Roger champions many lesser known works and is committed to commissioning new works for his instrument.
Other UK orchestras that Roger has performed with include the New London Orchestra (with Ronald Corp), the Guildford Philharmonic (with Vernon Handley) and the Cardiff Bay Chamber Orchestra (with Gareth Jones), along with a host of semi-professional and community orchestras.
Roger Benedict performs Henze's Serenade
at the 2007 International Viola Congress