Links
Academic

Recent Publications:

'Music as Mirror: Reflections of Biography and Identity in the Music of Louis Lewandowski', in Jewishness, Jewish Identity and Music Culture in 19th-Century Europe (Ad Parnassum Studies 2020)

Music and Letters Book Review, Composing Capital, Classical Music in the Neoliberal Era (2020)

'The British Symphony Orchestra and the Arts Council of Great Britain, Examining the Orchestra in its Economic and Institutional Environments', book chapter in Oxford University Press volume Global Perspectives on Orchestras (2017).

The December 2013 issue of 'The Musical Times' includes Benjamin's article,'The SPNM 1943 - 1975: a retrospective'. Details can be found here.

Recent conference papers have explored the Musicians' Union (Glasgow 2016), nineteenth-century Jewish choral music (Leeds 2015), the life of Louis Lewandowski (Rome 2015), the career of Alick Maclean (NABMSA 2014), Ewan MacColl's 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' (Popmac 2013), the place of new opera at the Royal Opera House in the post-war period (NABMSA 2012), and  British attitudes to censorship after the Second World War (RMA/King's College London, 2012).

Benjamin Wolf's PhD thesis is available for download from the British Library's Ethos system. You can find it here. If you have any problems please use the contact form on this website.

Next Appearance

Performances are currently on hold due to Covid-19. Watch this space for future plans, which should include interfaith performances in Cambridge and London, the next European Jewish Choral Festival in Sofia, and the next Montefiore heritage concert.

 

Music Downloads

You can download recordings from Itunes, Amazon and other sources. Here are some of Benjamin's recordings:

Bendigamos (bOYbershop)

 

Zemel Goes Stateside

Todah V'Zimrah (Belsize Square)

Composition

The Etz Chayim Cello Concerto was written for the 70th anniversary of Belsize Square Synagogue. It was described as an 'individual sound world of colour and incisive brilliance' (Jewish Renaissance Magazine April 2009). You can download the concerto using the link on this page. Recorded live with the Wallace Ensemble and cellist Gemma Rosefield.

 Welcome to the website of Benjamin Wolf, a musician and academic known for his work in classical and Jewish music and his research into musical life in twentieth-century Britain. He regularly performs as conductor, pianist, singer and composer, and is Musical Director of the Zemel Choir, the Wallace Ensemble, the Royal Free Music Society, and the choirs of Belsize Square Synagogue. He is Senior Lecturer in Music at Regent's University, London, and a former lecturer at Royal Holloway and the University of Bristol. He is also the founder of the bOYbershop quartet.

Benjamin's oratorio Armistice was recently recorded by the Zemel Choir, and is now available for download. Here is the final movement, 'In Flanders Fields'. For download information, visit this page.

As conductor, Benjamin has performed at a number of important international and interfaith events. In 2020 he was Music Director for the annual Holocaust Memorial Trust commemorative service, broadcast on BBC2. In 2013, 2015 and 2018 he was one of the principal organisers/performers for services at Westminster Abbey commemorating the Liberation of Auschwitz and the anniversary of Kristallnacht. He has also often performed for the Sacrées Journées de Strasbourg, and for six years has been one of the performers and organisers of the annual Montefiore Day concert in Ramsgate. In 2012 he created the first European Jewish Choral Festival in London with the Zemel Choir, and has performed at most of the subsequent festivals, including those in Ferrara (2019), Lviv (2018), St Petersburg (2017), London (2016) and Rome (2014). He has also forged a strong link with Berlin, having performed with different choirs at the annual Louis Lewandowski Festival (most recently in 2017), and at the anniversary celebrations for the Oranienburgerstrasse Synagogue (2016). 

Photo: Westminster Abbey/Andrew Dunsmore

Benjamin also regularly performs music from the Western canon, including performances with the Wallace Ensemble and the Royal Free Music Society. With bOYbershop he performs a mixture of Jewish music, close harmony/barbershop repertoire and original songs.

Click above for links to compositions, performances and musical samples. Here are a couple of examples:

Benjamin's arrangement of Ocho Kandelikas, performed by bOYbershop

Here is the second movement of his piano concerto L'Chaim performed with the Wallace Ensemble at Belsize Square Synagogue. This movement uses biblical cantillation as its inspiration.

Here is the Zemel Choir performing at the Strasbourg mosque.