Clifford Benson

In the Royal College of Music in London, British pianist Clifford Benson studied with Lamar Crowson and Cyril Smith. He was granted the Chopin Sonata Reward, the Geoffrey Tankard Lieder Reward for Accompaniment, as well as the Tagore Platinum Medal while at college. He continued to win first reward champion in the BBC Beethoven and Munich International Duo Contests, both using the violinist Levon Chilingirian. He offers collaborated numerous prominent performers, including violinist Shlomo Mintz, flutists Trevor Wye and William Bennett, baritone Stephen Varcoe, and clarinetist Thea Ruler, but also with performers Cleo Laine and Eartha Kitt. He was also the pianist for Jacqueline du Pré’s grasp classes on BBC tv. A former person in the Nash Outfit, he appeared like a soloist and chamber musician in the BBC Promenade Concerts. He performed with conductors Sir Charles Mackerras, George Hurst, Daniel Barenboim, and Neville Marriner. Globe premieres he performed consist of Richard Rodney Bennett’s Three Intimate Items and Malcolm Lipkin’s Sonata No. 4. He documented significant amounts of British music for Hyperion and released additional recordings on Bravura, Chandos, CRD, CamerataTokyo, Beep, Deutsche Grammophon, and Unicorn. Benson was also a composer and offers published several functions for the piano. His Au revoir Sylvie, originally created for single piano, was orchestrated and performed from the BBC Concert Orchestra. He trained piano and chamber music in the Royal Academy of Music, London, but was also an oft-sought adjudicator for contests and festivals.