Benjamin Butterfield
Tenor
"Benjamin Butterfield was first-rate, a musically arresting presence…"
— San Francisco Chronicle
MYKOLA LYSENKO I Rose at Dawn
The Ukranian Art Song Project
Praised by The New York Times as, “clarion-voiced and vibrant”, Benjamin Butterfield is known for his performances throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He has performed with many of the world’s leading conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, James Conlon, Nicholas McGegan, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Bramwell Tovey, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Labadie, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Jeffrey Thomas, Trevor Pinnock, Bruno Weil and Marc Minkowski. Read the full biography, below.
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Available Programs
Mädchen, Les filles and Girls!
Benjamin Butterfield delights in a program filled entirely with songs about girls, the repertoire spanning nations and centuries, for example Adelaide (Beethoven), Sylvie (Faure), Phydilé (DuParc), Als Luise due briefe (Mozart), Caroline (Newman) and others.
Masque of Irony: Randy Newman Songs
Benjamin Butterfield is a passionate advocate for the work of Randy Newman, whose songs here are interspersed with texts by the likes of Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, and Carl Sandburg. To quote Larry Beckwith, Artistic Director of Toronto Masque Theatre, with whom this program was first performed, “Newman is fond of making up characters with prejudices, flaws and ignorance and who are grappling with issues of guilt and anger. Rather than lamenting situations, though, he pokes fun at them…. There is a great deal of irony in these songs, but they are also full of an odd kind of compassion, remorse, a great deal of humor, and some fairly astute observations on the state of the union”.
Watch & Listen
MYKOLA LYSENKO I Rose at Dawn
The Ukranian Art Song Project
YAKIV STEPOVYI Not all Sorrows have Died
The Ukranian Art Song Project
Biography
Praised by The New York Times as, “clarion-voiced and vibrant”, Benjamin Butterfield is known for his performances throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He has performed with many of the world’s leading conductors including Sir Andrew Davis, James Conlon, Nicholas McGegan, Charles Dutoit, Leonard Slatkin, Bramwell Tovey, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Labadie, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Jeffrey Thomas, Trevor Pinnock, Bruno Weil and Marc Minkowski.
In recent seasons Butterfield has made multiple appearances with the Baltimore, Nashville, Houston, St. Louis, and Vancouver Symphonies; and the Calgary Philharmonic. He performs regularly with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem including their annual Bach Festival and in his hometown with Victoria Symphony, Victoria Choral Society, Victoria Philharmonic Choir, and White Rock Concerts.
Recent performance highlights include Carnegie Hall with Orchestra of St. Luke’s (Haydn’s Creation), Lincoln Center with American Classical Orchestra, Utah Symphony (Mozart’s Requiem), Kansas City Symphony (Messiah), Haydn Masses with San Diego Symphony and Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, and Britten’s Serenade and War Requiem with L’ Orchestre Lyrique de Montreal and Victoria Symphony. Butterfield has also appeared at Pacific Baroque Festival under conductor Marc Destrubé, Luminous Voices (Mozart’s Requiem), Elgin Symphony (Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony), and the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival in Vermont (Schubert’s Auf dem Strom and Janacek’s The Diary of one who Disappeared). He makes frequent appearances with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem including their annual 2-week Bach Festival.
Most recently as an interpreter of opera, he portrayed the role of Mime in Das Rheingold with Pacific Opera and was stage director for Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi at the Amalfi Coast Music Festival. Other operatic roles include Grimoaldo in Handel’s Rodelinda and Jupiter in Semele with Pacific Opera Victoria, Frère Massée in Messiaen’s St. François d’Assise with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony, Tamino in The Magic Flute with the Toronto Symphony and Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Calgary Opera.
A prolific recording artist, he has recorded for Analekta, Dorian, CBC Records, Koch International and Timpani (France). He has also been featured in Messiah on ZDF at the Handel-Festspiele Halle with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert and on CBC Radio as a guest host for This is my Music. Recently Mr. Butterfield recorded the St. John Passion with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem (Analekta), the Rhien transcription of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde for Yellow Barn and a sixth CD of Ukrainian Art Song for the Ukrainian Art Song Project in Toronto.
In fall of 2018, Butterfield was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the country’s highest academic honor. Professor, head of voice, and co-head of performance for the School of Music at the University of Victoria, he was the 2015 recipient of the UVic. Craigdarroch Award for Excellence in Artistic Expression. He has also served as guest faculty for Opera Nuova, the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy, The Victoria Conservatory Summer Vocal Academy, Vancouver International Song Institute, Yellow Barn, and Opera on the Avalon.