Benjamin Baker (violin)
Described by The New York Times as bringing “virtuosity, refinement, and youthful exuberance” to his Merkin Concert Hall debut, Benjamin has established himself as a sought-after soloist and chamber musician, performing widely across Aotearoa New Zealand and internationally.
Recent highlights include regular appearances at Wigmore Hall and on BBC Radio 3, and concerto debuts with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales under Ryan Bancroft (Barber), Fort Worth Symphony with Dame Jane Glover (Beethoven), London Philharmonic Orchestra (Mozart), and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra at the East Neuk Festival. In New Zealand, he has appeared as soloist with the Auckland Philharmonia and Christchurch Symphony Orchestras.
In the 2024–25 season, Benjamin makes his US debuts with the Mobile, Columbus, Summerville and Newport Symphony Orchestras. He also appears with the Romanian Radio Chamber Orchestra under Jonathan Bloxham, the Pärnu City Orchestra at Estonia’s Pärnu Festival, and gives the world premiere of Matthew Kaner’s Violin Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Amarillo Symphony in Texas.
Each October, Benjamin returns home to New Zealand for At the World’s Edge (AWE), the annual spring chamber music festival he co-founded in 2021. Held in the South Island, AWE draws international artists and audiences, and in 2023 began presenting events in Chicago and London to showcase New Zealand music and culture overseas.
Benjamin’s solo recordings include works with the BBC Concert and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, and two critically acclaimed albums with pianist Daniel Lebhardt on Delphian Records: 1942 and 1919: Coda.
Born in Aotearoa New Zealand, Benjamin studied with Natasha Boyarsky at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music, where he was awarded the Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Rose Bowl. In 2013, he won First Prize at the Windsor International Competition and was a prize-winner at the YCAT International Auditions in London.
Benjamin plays on a Giovanni Grancino from 1694, on generous loan from a Charitable Trust.
“The playing is marvellously poised, an exemplary concept album aptly adapted to each composer’s circumstances and individuality. Baker and Lebhardt tell four very human stories, each of them flawed. I was on the edge of my seat throughout.” – Norman Lebrecht, Le Scena Musicale, May 2023
A performance by Benjamin Baker and Daniel Lebhardt that captures so effectively the passion and pain of Poulenc’s inspiration … an excellent recording.
Andrew McGregor Record Review / Delphian 1942 CD / 2021
“The world was in turmoil in 1942, with much of Europe under Nazi occupation. All three works on this remarkable album were begun that year, and two of them are products of this dark time … New Zealand-born violinist Benjamin Baker and Hungarian pianist Daniel Lebhardt are superb partners with a rare passion and energy”.
Apple Music / Delphian 1942 CD / 2021
We expect oracles from composers in ominous times. Here are three composers who preferred to bury their heads in scores. It is the interpreters, Benjamin Baker and Daniel Lebhardt, who bring out the terrors and anxieties that rumble beneath these works. Both are brilliant artists of independent mind and prodigious technique, one a New Zealander, the other Hungarian. Their Edinburgh recital was recorded last summer in the thick of the Covid pandemic. Different time, different crisis. This is a wonderfully timely album.
NORMAN LEBRECHT – La Scena Musicale / Delphian 1942 CD / 2021
Bach’s Second Partita, culminating in its colossal Chaconne: perfect of intonation, warmed by vibrato at carefully chosen points, utterly meaningful in every phrase so that the listener couldn’t lose focus. I heard conductor David Parry saying to Baker afterwards that it was the best live performance of the work he’d ever heard; that had been on my mind too, and I’ve probably heard far fewer than Parry.
The Arts Desk / Southrepps Festival / August 2019
The fine violinist Benjamin Baker….brought virtuosity, refinement and youthful exuberance to a daunting program.
New York Times / Merkin Concert Hall NY / February 2018
