Benjamin Pope - Conductor
Benjamin has conducted orchestras worldwide including the Royal Philharmonic and Hallé Orchestras, Dresden Staatskapelle, Dresden Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Staatskapelle, Tokyo Philharmonic & Scottish Chamber Orchestras.
He has worked with orchestras including the Osaka Symphony, Luxembourg Philharmonic, Ulster Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony, Munich Symphony, Lahti Symphony, Iceland Symphony, Orchestras of RTÉ (Ireland), ERT (Greece) and BBC, Britten Sinfonia, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and Czech National Symphony, as well as many other orchestras and choirs in the USA, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, France, Japan, Turkey, South Korea, Austria, and the Czech Republic. He has toured to Jamaica and Africa with the Royal Philharmonic, and worldwide with The Royal Ballet.
A critically-acclaimed conductor for dance, Benjamin is highly in demand and has been invited to work with the many of the leading companies in houses such as The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Vienna Staatsoper, and Dresden Semperoper.
Benjamin was named Music Consultant to Hong Kong Ballet in 2016, and Music Director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders in 2011, including appearances at La Fenice, Venice, at the Edinburgh International Festival, and conducting Britten for the centenary celebrations at the Aldeburgh Festival. Other invitations include New York City Ballet, Dutch National Ballet, Royal Swedish and Royal Danish Ballets, Finnish National Ballet, Staatsballett Berlin, Norwegian National Ballet, Scottish Ballet, English National Ballet, Tokyo Ballet, Basel Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, Charlotte Ballet, Northern Ballet, State Ballet of Georgia, and Rambert Dance Company. Benjamin has a long association with Matthew Bourne, having conducted for his companies for over 20 years in many hundreds of performances.
Benjamin is a highly experienced conductor of live-to-projection film screenings with a large repertoire of titles performed in concert halls and large-scale arenas throughout the world, including the Harry Potter in Concert Series, Amadeus, Titanic, among many others. Benjamin is authorised by John Williams to conduct the original Star Wars trilogy and to mentor other conductors seeking to become approved by Mr Williams, as well as being approved by Disney and Warner Bros. He has huge experience as an MD in the recording studio.
Benjamin is committed to music education - he was recently appointed as Music Director of The Classical Roadshow, conducting their schools' concerts for massed children's choirs, professional soloists and orchestra, and is the principal conductor for RPO Resound, the Royal Philharmonic's education department, including their concert series Noisy Kids - as well as projects for Orchestras Live, which won a 2018 Royal Philharmonic Society award. Benjamin has worked with youth orchestras throughout the world, and assisted Christopher Adey on his book, 'Orchestral Performance: A Guide for Conductors and Players' (Faber & Faber)