Biography
Benjamin Bayl is Associate Director of The Hanover Band, and Co-Founder of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra. Holding both Dutch and Australian nationality, he was the first Australian Organ Scholar of King’s College Cambridge, and then studied conducting at London’s National Opera Studio and Royal Academy of Music. He was appointed Assistant Conductor to Iván Fischer at the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. He also assisted Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding and Richard Hickox with world class ensembles such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
Benjamin has made highly successful debuts in recent seasons with Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra; Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland and Canberra Symphony Orchestras; Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Singapore Symphony Orchestra; Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra; Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias; Orquesta Filamónica de Medellín; Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Musikfest Berlin in the Berlin Philharmonie and Ruhrtrienniale Festival); Taipei Symphony Orchestra; Philharmonie Zuidnederland; Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano; Orchestra i Pomeriggi Musicali; Orchestra Filharmonica di Torino; the German symphony orchestras of Aachen, Bochum and Bremen, as well as numerous Scandinavian orchestras including Stavanger, Gävle, Umeå, Aarhus, Aalborg, Odense & Copenhagen. He is naturally at home with broad range of repertoire embracing the great Viennese classics, historically informed Baroque and Romantic music, and world premieres of new commissions.
In the realm of opera, he has conducted at major international houses including Wiener Staatsoper, Dutch National Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Royal Danish Opera, Norwegian National Opera, Theater an der Wien, Opera Vlaanderen, Opera de Oviedo, Budapest State Opera, Polish National Opera, Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Opera Zuid, NorrlandsOperan, Theater Aachen & Opera Australia.
He is also extremely active in the period instrument world as a director, recently making his conducting debut in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with Collegium Vocale Gent and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin and being immediately re-invited to conduct them on a European tour. Recent and regular partners include B’Rock, Vocalconsort Berlin, Concerto Copenhagen, Concerto Köln, Wroclaw Baroque Orchestra, Orkiestra Historyczna, Australian Haydn Ensemble, Van Diemen’s Band in Tasmania’s Ten Days Festival, and The Hanover Band - with whom he recorded a complete Beethoven Symphony cycle for online broadcast.
International festival engagements include Edinburgh, Savonlinna, Melbourne, Cartagena, Bayreuth Baroque, Euro Klassik Berlin & Chopin Festival Warsaw. He also works extensively with young musicians, often directing projects for organisations including the Australian National Academy of Music, the Netherlands Youth Orchestra, and the Slovak Youth Orchestra.
Current and forthcoming season highlights include engagements with the major Australian orchestras, Victorian Opera, Staatsoper Hannover, Mozart Festival Warsaw, Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Staatsoper Stuttgart, Sinfonieorchester Aachen and Orfeo Zenekar Budapest.
“Schumann’s Spring Symphony caught fire and came to life… the melodic phrases were carried forward with effortless and unerring musicality.”
- NORDJYSKE Stiftstidende
the telegraph
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ROSSINI "STABAT MATER"
HANOVER BAND & CHORUS
"He unleashed sounds from these period instruments that showed how radical Rossini was, and how indebted to this work is Verdi’s Requiem"
politiken
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MOZART "COSÌ FAN TUTTE"
DANISH NATIONAL OPERA
"The electric lights and the numerous modern instruments in the orchestra pit would have probably surprised old Wolfgang Amadeus… On the other hand, I think he would have liked Benjamin Bayl’s conducting."
der kurier
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DODERER "FATIMA, ODER VON DEN MUTIGEN KINDERN"
WIENER STAATSOPER
"Conductor Benjamin Bayl and the orchestra of the Staatsoper perform Doderer’s music with devotion, making the beauties of this score ring out."
the times
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ARNE “THE JUDGEMENT OF PARIS” BAMPTON CLASSICAL OPERA
WIGMORE HALL
"A golden apple and a few flirtatious glances aside, this was a concert performance but a pleasingly sung one, directed from the harpsichord by Benjamin Bayl, who revelled in Arne’s dapper tunes, busy violin descants and sizzling coloratura."