George Benjamin facts for kids

George Benjamin (born 31 January, 1960, London, England) is a British composer.

Benjamin started playing piano when he was seven years old and soon started writing his first pieces of music. In 1976 he went to study at the Paris Conservatoire where Olivier Messiaen taught him musical composition and Yvonne Loriod taught him the piano. He then studied composition with Alexander Goehr at King’s College, Cambridge.

He was still only 20 when one of his compositions was played at the BBC Proms. Since then his works have been played by many famous orchestras. He has worked regularly at the Tanglewood Festival. He has conducted famous orchestras like the London Sinfonietta, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

George Benjamin lives in London where he is Professor of Composition at King’s College, London. He has been given many honors including the Chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres in 1996.