Benjamin Dwyer facts for kids
Benjamin Dwyer (born 3 August 1965) is an Irish composer, guitarist, and music expert. He writes music, plays the guitar, and studies music history.
About His Life
Benjamin Dwyer was born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1965. He studied classical guitar in Dublin and London. He also studied music at Trinity College Dublin. Later, he earned a special degree (PhD) in music composition in 2000.
As a guitarist, he played his first big concert with an orchestra in Germany. Since then, he has performed with many major Irish orchestras. He has also given concerts all over Europe and North America. He has played with other musicians too, including singers, saxophone players, and jazz guitarists.
From 2002 to 2007, Dwyer lived in Spain. After that, he returned to Ireland. Since 2009, he has taught guitar at the Royal Irish Academy of Music. In 2012, he became a professor of music at Middlesex University.
Benjamin Dwyer is very interested in new and modern music. Since 1990, he has helped share new music in Ireland. He started a concert series called "Mostly Modern" (later "MUSIC21"). He also created and leads a music group called VOX21. This group has performed many new pieces by composers from Ireland and other countries. He has also organized music events and festivals, bringing special concerts to places like the National Concert Hall. He helped remember famous composers like György Ligeti and Benjamin Britten by organizing special events.
He has received several awards for his work. In 1987, the Brazilian Government gave him the Heitor Villa-Lobos Centenary Medal. In 2006, he became a member of Aosdána, which is a special group for Irish artists. In 2009, he became an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in London.
As a music expert, Benjamin Dwyer has written books and articles about music. These have appeared in the Journal of Music in Ireland.
His Music
Benjamin Dwyer has written many pieces for the classical guitar. His Twelve Études (which are like studies or exercises) are a very important collection for the guitar. He worked on them for twelve years, finishing them in 2008.
He often uses small musical ideas and changes them slowly. This can make his music sound like it's being made up on the spot. He also uses repeating rhythms a lot, for example, in his piece Voces críticas (2004) and his Guitar Quintet (2003).
Sometimes in his music, different ideas clash. Instead of one idea winning, they seem to cancel each other out. You can see this in his Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra (2000). This piece shows his interest in old Indian ideas about creation, preservation, and destruction.
Music Books and Recordings
Benjamin Dwyer has written several books about music. These include:
- A book about the composer John Buckley.
- A book called Different Voices: Irish Music and Music in Ireland.
- A book about Britten and the Guitar.
He has also released many recordings of his music. Some of these include:
- In the Ranelagh Gardens (2005), which features his own pieces.
- Evolution (2005), a recording with jazz guitarist Mike Nielsen.
- Benjamin Dwyer: Twelve Études for Guitar (2008), featuring his guitar studies.
- Irish Guitar Works (2012), where he plays his own guitar pieces and other Irish works.
- Benjamin Dwyer: Scenes from Crow (2014), performed by his VOX21 ensemble.
