Benjamin J. Martin

Benjamin James Martin is an Australian tenor who performs in opera, oratorio and concerts. He is now an admired interpreter of bel canto and lyric tenor heroes, and is well known on both sides of the Atlantic.

Career
Benjamin Martin was brought up in Launceston, Tasmania. He was educated at Riverside High School, the University of Tasmania (Bachelor of Music Performance - 1999), and the University of Melbourne (Master of Music Performance - 2005).

It was in his youth that his uncle, who was a Principle Artist with Opera Australia and had sung with Dame Joan Sutherland, came down to present a concert. Martin was the piano accompanist. This special concert was the first time he had ever heard such music, and convinced him that he had to sing it too.

Benjamin trained in Aldeburgh, UK, under the countertenor, Michael Chance. As a Young Artist at the Britten-Pears School he was a soloist in Purcell's King Arthur at Snape Maltings. His repertoire also includes Ernesto (Don Pasquale), Ferrando (Cosi Fan Tutte), Orfeo (Orfeo ed Euridice), Alfredo (Die Fledermaus) as well as Aeneas (Dido and Aeneas), Tancredi (Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda) and The Defendant (Trial By Jury). He has also performed in more contemporary compositions such as the Australian premieres of Frigyes Hidas's Requiem and Brenton Broadstock's Stations of the Cross.

Benjamin has studied at the Australian National Academy of Music, where he worked with Cord Gaben, and Sarah Walker. He has also trained in the UK with Raymond Connell, Roger Vignoles, and Andrew Watts, and in Australia with Anna Connolly, Rosamund Illing, Marilyn Richardson, Jane Edwards and Meryln Quaife.

He has appeared extensively at the Aldeburgh Festival in the UK, and has performed with The Astra Ensemble (Melbourne), the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra (New Zealand), In Good Company (Melbourne), the Lyric Opera of Melbourne, the Royal Melbourne Philharmonic, the Melbourne Chorale, the Tasmanian Chorale and OzOpera.

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