Ben Robinson : Associate Artist
Photo: Jay Patel
Email:
Artist website: https://benrobinson.com.au/
Ben Robinson is a versatile Australian composer with a flair for electric rhythmic landscapes and angular melodic gestures. He creates engaging musical arcs of "fun and fury" (Limelight) through agile and colourful ideas that appeal to a wide audience. A graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he was awarded the Raymond Hanson Memorial Prize by his tutors for excellence in composition.
Ben has kicked off his career with commissions for Omega Ensemble, the Australian National Academy of Music's inaugural ANAM Set, Sydney's charismatic orchestral collective Ensemble Apex, and the Sydney Opera House. He has also composed for prestigious programs with the Australian Youth Orchestra, the Ku-ring-gai Philharmonic Orchestra and Ensemble Offspring.
His music has been performed in local festivals including Vivid Sydney and Extended Play, as well as internationally in the U.S., the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, and the Asia Saxophone Congress in Shanghai.
Outside of composition, Ben works with Australia's musical trailblazers Ensemble Offspring to commission and perform more new music than any group in the country. He also tours around Australia and the UK with the absurd, Georgian-inspired vocal group The Spooky Men's Chorale.
Ben Robinson — current to November 2023
Selected Commissions
Work | Commission Details | |
---|---|---|
Have a Nice Trip (quintets: clarinet, piano, violin, viola, cello ) (2023) | Commissioned by Omega Ensemble as part of the 2023 CoLAB: Composer Accelerator Program. | |
A Place to Grow : for concert band and strings (2022) | Commissioned by St Columba Anglican School, Port Macquarie for their 20th anniversary. | |
Vertigo : for chamber orchestra (2021) | Composed for the Momentum Ensemble as part of the Australian Youth Orchestra's 2021 composition program. | |
Stepping Out : for violin and piano (2021) | Commissioned by The ANAM Set, Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) with funds provided by Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund. | |
Eat Your Damn Vegetables : for chamber ensemble (2021) | Composed for Ensemble Offspring's 2021 Hatched Summer School | |
Binary Ties : chamber orchestra (2020) | Commissioned by Ensemble Apex. |