Ben Johnson

British tenor Ben Johnson studied with Neil Mackie and Tim Evans-Jones at the Royal College of Music Benjamin Britten International Opera School and is currently studying with Jeffrey Talbot. He gained international recognition in 2008, when he won the Kathleen Ferrier Award (the first male singer to do so in 13 years). He is also a prizewinner at the Wigmore Halle International Song Competition and the Gerald Moore Awards. In 2010 he was accepted into BBC Radio 3’s acclaimed New Generation Artist program; he is additionally an ENO Harewood Artist and a Wigmore Hall Emerging Talent. As an opera singer Johnson has performed such roles as Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at English National Opera and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni at Opéra National de Bordeaux. Other engagements have included Bénédict in Béatrice et Bénédict for Chelsea Opera Group and the Novice in Billy Budd at the Glyndebourne Festival; he has also performed at Opéra de Lyon, Scottish Opera, and the Classical Opera Company. Johnson performs a wide repertoire in the concert hall as well, ranging from Handel’s Messiah and Samson, which he has sung with the English Concert at the BBC Proms, and Mozart’s Requiem to Mahler’s Rückert Lieder and Britten’s Serenade. He has performed with such conductors as Jirí Belohlávek, Thomas Dausgaard, Richard Egarr, Mark Elder, Andris Nelsons, François-Xavier Roth, and Esa-Pekka Salonen. His partners in the field of art song include Roger Vignoles, Malcolm Martineau, James Baillieu, and Graham Johnson, with whom he has recorded a CD of lieder by Francis Poulenc. Johnson has given lieder recitals at such venues as Wigmore Hall in London, the Ruhr Piano Festival, and the Aldeburgh and City of London Festivals. Engagements for the coming season include appearances at the Glyndebourne Festival as well as performances of the roles of Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni) and Alfredo (La Traviata) at English National Opera.

4 September 2012