Benjamin Bayl
Director of the Early Music Program
Benjamin Bayl is Associate Director of The Hanover Band, Co-Founder & Guest Director of the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra, and Director of Opera Neo's Early Music Program. Holding both Dutch and Australian nationality, he was the first Australian Organ Scholar of the Choir of King’s College Cambridge, after which he studied historical performance at Basel’s Schola Cantorum and orchestral conducting at the Royal Academy of Music with Colin Metters and George Hurst. An alumnus of the National Opera Studio, he became Assistant Conductor to the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer in 2006, and was also mentored by and assisted Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Richard Hickox, Harry Christophers and Ivor Bolton. From 2007-2010 he served as Assistant Artistic Director to the Gabrieli Consort & Paul McCreesh, and also worked with Konzerthausorchester Berlin.
Benjamin has made highly successful debuts in recent seasons with such orchestras as Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Musikfest Berlin in the Berlin Philharmonie, and Ruhrtrienniale Festival), Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias, Taipei Symphony Orchestra, Bochumer Symphoniker, Bremer Philharmoniker, Sinfonieorchester Aachen, Britten Sinfonia, Orquesta Filarmónica de Medellín, Orchestra i Pomeriggi Musicali, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, Orchestra Haydn di Bolzano, and Orchestra Filharmonica di Torino, as well as numerous Scandinavian symphony orchestras (including Stavanger, Gävle, Umeå, Aarhus, Aalborg, Odense & Copenhagen) conducting a broad range of repertoire from the great Viennese classics, historically informed Baroque and Romantic music, and world premieres of new commissions.
In the realm of opera, he conducts at important international houses including Wiener Staatsoper, Dutch National Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, Royal Danish Opera, Den Norske 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, and Opera Australia.
He recently made his conducting debut at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw with Collegium Vocale Gent and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, and was immediately re-invited to conduct them on a European tour. Working extensively in the period instrument field (both as conductor or directing from the keyboard) recent and regular collaborations 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 recently completed a complete Beethoven Symphony cycle recorded for online broadcast.
Other festival engagements include Edinburgh, Melbourne, Cartagena, Euro Klassik Berlin & Chopin Festival Warsaw. He also works extensively with young musicians, often directing projects for training organisations including Opera Neo, ANAM, Netherlands Youth Orchestra, and the Slovak Youth Orchestra.
Current and forthcoming season highlights include engagements with the Melbourne, Sydney & Queensland Symphony Orchestras, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Theater Aachen, Opera Neo San Diego, Hong Kong Philharmonic & Croatian National Opera.
