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The American symphonic and operatic conductor, composer, counter-tenor/soprano, and pianist (solo and collaborative, including continuo), Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg, was a child soloist and chorister with the Metropolitan Opera, studied composition and conducting at Juilliard Pre-College (2009-2017) and Harvard University (magna cum laude with Highest Honors, Phi Beta Kappa, John Harvard Scholar: 2018-2022), and a US Presidential Scholar in the Arts. While a student at Harvard, he performed as a vocal soloist with the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra (Director: Phoebe Carrai), Harvard University Choir (Director: Edward Elwyn Jones), Harvard Glee Club, Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and Harvard Choruses, and Harvard College Opera. He is a mentee of Jac van Steen, Kenneth Montgomery, Ed Spanjaard, and Antony Hermus as a member of the prestigious National Master’s of Orchestral Conducting in The Netherlands (Conservatorium van Amsterdam and Koninklijk Conservatorium - Royal Conservatoire Den Haag: 2022-2023).
Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg is based between Amsterdam and New York. He has guest conducted the Tonkünstler-Orchester (Austria), the Orchestra of the 18th Century (Netherlands), Members of Radio Filharmonisch Orkest (Netherlands), and the Boston Pops Orchestra (Symphony Hall, MA), conducted in public international masterclasses with such conductors as Marin Alsop and Jaap van Zweden, and attended the Gstaad Menuhin Festival Conducting Academy (Switzerland), the Grafenegg Festival INK STILL WET Composer-Conductor Program (Austria), Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme in Orchestral Conducting (UK), and the Tanglewood Music Center Conducting Seminar (USA). In March 2022, he conducted the World Premiere of his newly-composed opera (music and libretto), Nighttown, with Lowell House Opera, who commissioned the work. The piece won a 2023 ASCAP Morton Gould Composer Award, and was critically acclaimed by the Boston Globe and Schmopera, who wrote, “It is almost infuriating that something could be so good.”
Also an accomplished counter-tenor, Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg is a 2021 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions Boston District Winner and attended the 2021 Houston Grand Opera Young Artists Vocal Academy, and he has performed in opera roles and as a concert soloist with/at the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, New York City Opera, Atlanta Opera, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Dawn Upshaw and Gilbert Kalish, the Columbus Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Shakespeare in the Park, NPR’s From the Top, the National YoungArts Foundation, Carnegie Hall, and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In May 2023, he sang as the counter-tenor soloist in Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms with the Phoenix Symphony (Conductor: Tito Muñoz).
Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg has music directed Lowell House Opera (2022), Harvard College Opera (2018-2021), and the Mozart Society Orchestra (2017-2021). In 2019, he performed as a collaborative pianist for German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Harvard Honorary Degrees Dinner, and he has served as a continuo player, répétiteur, Chorus Master, and coach with Lowell House Opera (2017-2021). His 2022-2023 season includes guest conducting projects with the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague (W.A. Mozart’s Così fan tutte) and the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (Janáček’s Wandering of a Little Soul with soloist Natálie Kulina), masterclasses with Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, and Noord Nederlands Orkest, and assistant conducting with Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Belgian National Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Orchestra of the 18th Century, Dutch National Opera Academy, Groot Omroepkoor, Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Phion, and Noord Nederlands Orkest.
Awards and acknowledgements include: Winner of the Leonard Bernstein Memorial Conducting Competition (Boston Pops Orchestra), 1st Prize at the INK STILL WET Composer-Conductor Competition, various ASCAP composition Awards and Scholarships, BMI Student Composer Award, Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts (Office for the Arts at Harvard), Artist Development Fellowship (Office for the Arts at Harvard), Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for Excellent Undergraduate Work (Harvard University), Captain Jonathan Fay Prize for Most Outstanding and Imaginative Work (Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard), Robert J. Kiely Prize for Most Outstanding Junior Essay (Harvard University Department of English), National Merit Scholarship, and selection for the New York Magazine Approval Matrix (“brilliant/highbrow” quadrant). Wenzelberg won an ASCAP Award for the original libretto and music of his first opera, The Sleeping Beauty, a new opera for family audiences, which premiered to sold-out audiences in New York and New Jersey with a cast that featured several Metropolitan Opera singers. Previous composition commissions and performances include by/at the Vienna Musikverein (Austria), the Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra during L.v. Beethoven 250th birthday concerts (Japan), the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra 2001 (Philadelphia), and Carnegie Hall (New York). Film/recording credits include: performing the role of Charlie Bucket in Peter Ash’s The Golden Ticket (based on Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), commercially recorded during live performances with Atlanta Opera; singing with tenor group Forte on their debut record; being the singing voice of the lead character in the film (including soundtrack) Hear My Song (formerly Boychoir); and appearing numerous times on Sesame Street.
Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg is fluent in Spanish and proficient in German, with working knowledge of French and Italian. He has working knowledge of violin/viola and harpsichord. He is a proud AGMA, SAG/AFTRA, and ASCAP member. Beyond his artistic activities, Wenzelberg loves studying languages, traveling, cooking, swimming, and any meal in bowl form. |
