Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg was born in 1999 in New York. In 2024 he graduated with Distinction from the National Master’s in Orchestral Conducting course in Amsterdam/The Hague. Meanwhile a prize-winning composer, he is also an accomplished countertenor and pianist. He attended Juilliard Pre-College and sang as a child soloist and chorister at the Metropolitan Opera, going on to study English and Music in Harvard.
Benjamin about his Artistic Partnership:
“It’s my honor to be named Artistic Partner & Creative Associate of the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century. I’m deeply grateful for the musical rapport and personal resonance we share so strongly, and am proud to represent how O18C’s approach to historical performance can be a strikingly contemporary vehicle for keeping the spark and impact of this repertoire vibrant for artists and audiences today.
I first met this group of musicians as the assistant of my late mentor, the extraordinary person and musician that was Kenneth Montgomery. He took me, decked out in his signature salmon jacket, to hear the orchestra record CPE Bach sans conductor: a dazzling musical experience. I will never forget how closely and warmly he knew each and every member of the orchestra, and how he introduced me to several members, always one by one. This is a community in which each person is a musical leader, scholar, and virtuosic artist; collaborating as a group, therefore, is nothing short of true magic. As a conductor, it’s particularly special to find such a specific and close connection with people, individually and en masse. To be a collaborator in this community is powerful beyond words.
In delivering and championing Haydn operas — first assisting Kenneth, and then having the honor to carry on his legacy myself with O18C and the beautiful Dutch National Opera Academy — and engaging with several other composers ranging from Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges to Mariana Martines to new music(!!) to Mozart (more on that below!), it’s been vibrant and inspiring to work together on a lot of repertoire, and I cherish the opportunity to join the orchestra’s trajectory and Kate Rockett’s visionary and empathetic leadership in many exciting directions.
My first project with this title will be conducting the orchestra’s production of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, directed by Jorinde Keesmaat. We debut in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam on Oct. 20, and go on tour across the Netherlands in the days that follow. I’m also immensely looking forward to developing and conducting a devised program portrait-ing Mariana Martines (a wonderful 18th-century composer whom you should get to know!!!), teaming up with my dear friends Elisabeth Hetherington and Peter Leung. Grateful!!”
