Canadian Tenor Benjamin Butterfield is recognized for his work in Opera, Oratorio and Concert throughout North America, Europe and Asia ,also having performed in New Zealand, the Middle East and Ukraine. 

In a career that has spanned 35 years, Butterfield has sung in Carnegie Hall, the Royal Albert Hall (BBC Proms), Epidaurus in Greece, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Het Concertgebouw, La Monnaie, the San Carlo in Naples and at the National Concert Hall in Taipei. His repertoire has revolved around Bach’s Passions (Evangelist and Arias), the oratorios and operas of Handel and Haydn, Mozart (Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, Cosi fan tutte, Die Entführung, Requiem etc.), Benjamin Britten (Canticles, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Turn of the Screw, St. Nicholas, Curlew River etc.), Stravinsky (Perséphone, Rakes Progress, Pulcinella etc.) as well as performances of Rossini (Barber of Seville, L’Italiana in Algeri, Petite Messe), Donizetti (Don Pasquale) and Verdi (Falstaff and Requiem). 

Recently Butterfield sang with Barbara Hannigan and pianist Bertrand Chamayou as a special guest joining the duo for Messiaen’s “La mort du nombre”, sang in run out performances of “Banned from the Concert Hall” through Early Music Vancouver and Victoria Baroque (a hybrid concert centred on the bawdy songs and catches of Henry Purcell), “Messiah” with Early Music Voices in Calgary, a recital of English song with pianist Sarah Hagen as well as “Beethoven 9” in Great Falls Montana, Bach’s “B minor Mass” with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania and “Mozart Requiem” with the Baltimore Symphony (Alsop). 

Past highlights have seen Butterfield singing “Messiah” (McGegan) and Beethoven 9 (Graf) with the Houston Symphony, Haydn’s “Creation” at Carnegie Hall with the Orchestra of St. Lukes (Rosenbaum) and “Philemon und Baucis” at Schloss Esterhazy in Austria with the English Concert (Pinnock), Stravinsky’s “Perséphone” at the San Carlo in Naples with film star Isabella Rossellini (Ferro), “Barber of Seville” at the Welsh National Opera (Rizzi) and Le Capitole in Toulouse (Desderi), “L’enfant et les sortilèges” at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony (Slatkin) as well as “Messiah” (McCreesh and Goodwin). In 2016 Butterfield participated in a special performance of the Kiddish Requiem (Stankovych) at the Kyiv Opera with the Frankfurt Symphony under Oksana Lyniv recognizing the 75th Anniversary of Babyn Yar. 

Mr. Butterfield has more than 40 CD recordings to his credit including Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion” and Cantatas as well as Haydn Masses, Schütz’ “Musikalische Exequien” and “Beethoven 9” (American Bach Soloists – Thomas), Bach’s “Christmas Oratorio” and “St. John Passion” etc. (Bach Choir of Bethlehem – Funfgeld), “Psalm 80” by Albert Roussel (Luxembourg Philharmonic – Tovey) as well as five volumes of Ukrainian art song (Ukrainian Art Song Project – Hunka). He can also be heard in the film of “Dido and Aeneas” with Tafelmusik and the Mark Morris Dance Company and is the voice for actor Colm Feore in the opera vignettes film “Burnt Toast” by Dan Redican. 

Head of Voice for the School of Music at the University of Victoria in Canada, Prof. Butterfield has been recognized by Opera Canada with a Ruby Award for his contributions as a tenor and pedagogue (2019) and was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (2018). In conjunction with his responsibilities at UVic, Benjamin is an Adjudicator and has participated on many arts funding panels including the Hnatyshyn Foundation in Ottawa and the BC Arts Council. He also has served on faculty for summer vocal training programs including Opera Nuova (Edmonton), Orford Musique (Quebec), the Amalfi Coast Music Festival as well as the Sicily Music Festival and Competition (Italy), Valley Opera Summer Intensive (Kelowna), Yellow Barn (Vermont), Institut Canadien d’art Vocal (Montreal) as well as being Co-Director for the Ukrainian Art Song Summer Institute (Toronto). 

"It was simply ravishing. Butterfield's absolutely gorgeous voice and total musicality suddenly had the capacity audience awed into silence."

— Hugh Fraser, Hamilton Spectator

"Benjamin Butterfield was first-rate, a musically arresting presence…"

— Robert Commanday, San Francisco Chronicle

BACH | St. John Passion “Evangelist | Vancouver Bach Choir

This performance was truly exceptional. The part of the Evangelist is mammoth but fundamentally unshowy: He’s there to tell the story with a certain cool dispatch. Butterfield got the tone exactly right.”

— David Gordon Duke, The Vancouver Sun

HANDEL | Messiah | Houston Symphony Orchestra | Nicholas McGegan, cond.

“Butterfield’s bright, fluent singing and crystal-clear diction put the message of Handel’s music and

Charles Jennens’ text in the forefront. He began “Comfort ye” sweetly, then his voice roused as he invoked the voice calling out in the wilderness; much of the time, Butterfield’s score remained closed, and he gazed out to his listeners like an adroit orator....Butterfield embellished Handel’s vocal line generously...and his flourishes heightened the exuberance of “Ev’ry valley.” In the sequence describing Jesus’ sufferings, Butterfield’s vividness harkened back to Handel’s theatrical roots. “Thy rebuke” was mainly hushed and plaintive; in “Behold, and see,” Butterfield spoke out more urgently. And his ring and decisiveness captured the optimism of “But thou didst not leave His soul in hell.” -- Steven Brown, Texas Classical Review

JANACEK | The Cunning Little Vixen | “Schoolmaster” |

"Tenor Benjamin Butterfield sang and played the heartsick schoolmaster so convincingly, I momentarily forgot I was in the theatre."  — Alan Horgan, The Globe and Mail

 | The Diary of One Who Disappeared | Nasher Sculpture Center

“Benjamin Butterfield supplied a sinewy lyric tenor and vivid declamation.”

— Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News

“Butterfield did an exceptional job and…was able to communicate what the composer referred to as “emotional fire…He is perfectly suited to pieces such as this.” — Gregory Sullivan Isaacs, Theater Jones

MENDELSSOHN | Elijah | Calgary Philharmonic | Timothy Shantz, cond.

“Benjamin Butterfield, perfectly cast for the lyric tenor part, offered memorable performances of If With All Your Hearts and Then Shall the Righteous Shine Forth, both arias tenor favourites the world over. Always a musical and intelligent singer, he is, understandably a favourite with Calgarians.”

— Kenneth DeLong, Calgary Herald

RECITALS | Debussy, Newman, Schubert | Elora Festival, Toronto

“Next came world famous Canadian tenor Benjamin Butterfield singing Mandoline by Claude Debussy, Marie by Randy Newman, and Die Taubenpost by Franz Schubert. Butterfield, the consummate artist in drawing the audience into the kaleidoscope of wonder that only the arts can provide, performed his magic!” — David Richards, Toronto Concert Review

   | Vernon Performing Arts Center | With pianist Sarah Hagen |

"If I were to write a Twitter review of Sunday's concert by Benjamin Butterfield and Sarah Hagen, it would go something like this: “Lyrical. Whimsical. Intimate. Multicultural. Excellent!...The headliners, tenor Benjamin Butterfield and pianist Sarah Hagen, both internationally acclaimed musicians, put together a fantastic program that gave the audience a taste of music from many cultures."

— Natalia Polchenko, Vernon Morning Star

               | Edmonton Recital Society | Peter Dala, piano

“[...] Butterfield’s recital style immediately won over the audience. There is something of the opera singer in that style: he doesn’t overdo it (nor does it ever seem stilted), but the body language is as quietly evocative as the voice, and his facial expressions share the emotions with the audience. One could be sitting in a much more intimate setting, the singer entertaining friends in some private salon, perhaps, and it is very engaging.

Here [Beethoven's An die Ferne Geliebte] were all his strengths: marvelous diction, an ability to gently tease out the rhythm (as in the gently rolling gait of Wo die Berge), and expressive combination of phrasing and vocal colour.

The biggest surprise was left to the end. All too often when classical singers veer into pop, the results are frankly embarrassing. But Butterfield, in his introduction, suggested that the songs of Randy Newman are in fact great American art songs. He then proceeded to sing a group of them, forming a kind of song cycle of love and loneliness. He sang them exactly as if they were art songs, not changing his technique, approaching them as he had the rest of the recital. It worked, convincingly, perhaps because of the nature of Newman’s vocal lines and the depth of the lyrics, especially in real Emotional Girl, with its chordal piano work. An original way to round off a most enjoyable program.” —Edmonton Journal

SCHUMANN | Liederkreis, Op. 24 | Mount Royal Conservatory

"Butterfield is not only a very accomplished recitalist, he is also a natural communicator… The Schumann cycle was particularly successful, with the contrasts in character between the songs well marked and the inner moods precisely rendered. …the musical result was quite magical…"

— Kenneth DeLong, Calgary Herald