Ben Johnson

Acclaimed tenor Ben Johnson represented England in BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2013 and won the Audience Prize. A former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and 2008 winner of the Kathleen Ferrier Award, Johnson was formerly an English National Opera Harewood Artist and a Wigmore Hall Emerging Talent.

Passionate about the all areas of performance, his career encompasses the concert repertoire, opera and recital as well as conducting and artistic direction. He is the Founder and Chief Conductor of the Southrepps Sinfonia as well as joint Artisitc Director of the Southrepps Classical Music Festival. He is a professor of singing at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Much in demand on the concert platform, Ben Johnson recently performed Britten War Requiem on Remembrance Sunday under Marin Alsop at the Royal Festival Hall, Schumann Das Paradies und die Peri for Festival de Saint-Denis, Beethoven Symphony No.9 with the CBSO and Royal Northern Sinfonia, Berlioz Romeo et Juliette with Bergen Philharmonic, Britten St Nicolas and Bach St John Passion with the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, St Matthew Passion with The Bach Choir and Residentie Orkest, Bach Magnificat with Britten Sinfonia.

Opera highlights include a celebrated run as Alfredo La traviata in a new production, and subsequent revival, by Peter Konwitschny, Tamino in a new production of The Magic Flute by Simon McBurney, and Nemorino The Elixir of Love, all for ENO; Don Ottavio for Glyndebourne Festival Opera, ENO and Opéra National de Bordeaux, Oronte Alcina in a concert tour with The English Concert, Bénédict Béatrice et Bénédict for Chelsea Opera Group, Carlo Giovanna d'Arco for Buxton Festival Opera, Copland's The Tender Land at Opéra de Lyon and productions for Scottish Opera and the Classical Opera Company.

In recital he works regularly with Graham Johnson. They have performed together at the Wigmore Hall, the Ruhr Klavier Festival in Germany, Aldeburgh Music, and have recorded songs by Poulenc for Hyperion records. He also enjoys collaborations with James Baillieu (who accompanied his acclaimed debut album Britten Canticles with Signum Records), Julius Drake, Tom Primrose, Roger Vignoles and Sebastian Wybrew.

As a student, Johnson studied with Neil Mackie and Tim Evans-Jones. After leaving college he worked (and continues to work) with the tenor Jeffrey Talbot.