Ben Comeau (born 1993) is a British composer, pianist and organist, whose work combines classical, jazz and contemporary music.

Biography

Comeau was born in 1993 and grew up in Truro, Cornwall. As a child, he sang with the choir at

Truro Cathedral The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Truro, Cornwall. It was built between 1880 and 1910 to a Gothic Revival design by John Loughborough Pearson on the site of the parish church of St Mary. It i ...

, becoming interested in Bach and jazz music. He obtained an

LRSM The ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music) is an examination board and registered charity based in the United Kingdom. ABRSM is one of five examination boards accredited by Ofqual to award graded exams and diploma qualificatio ...

diploma with distinction in piano, and a Royal College of Organists diploma. In 2011, he won the first Northern Ireland International Organ Competition, playing his own arrangement of

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

's ''

Firebird Suite ''The Firebird'' (french: L'Oiseau de feu, link=no; russian: Жар-птица, Zhar-ptitsa, link=no) is a ballet and orchestral concert work by the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky. It was written for the 1910 Paris season of Sergei Diaghilev' ...

''. He studied at Girton College, Cambridge, where he was the college organ scholar, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in music in 2014. He gained a postgraduate degree in music from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Comeau's concerts mix classical, jazz and contemporary music including

Björk Björk Guðmundsdóttir ( , ; born 21 November 1965), known mononymously as Björk, is an Icelandic singer, songwriter, composer, record producer, and actress. Noted for her distinct three-octave vocal range and eccentric persona, she has de ...

and

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...

. In 2015, he composed and performed a 45-minute piano sonata in the style of a fictitious student of

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

in the 1880s. He has composed and performed several works for

BBC Radio Three BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The stat ...

, playing piano and organ. In 2018, Comeau uploaded to YouTube a four-part

fugue In music, a fugue () is a contrapuntal compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject (a musical theme) that is introduced at the beginning in imitation (repetition at different pitches) and which recurs frequently in the c ...

arranged for soprano, alto, tenor and bass with the words " Donald Trump is a Wanker", set to the tune of The White Stripes' "

Seven Nation Army "Seven Nation Army" is a song by American rock duo the White Stripes. It is the opening track on their fourth studio album, ''Elephant'' (2003). V2 Records released the song to American alternative radio on February 17, 2003, as the lead single f ...

". He sold the fugue's score online, with proceeds going towards "organisations combating the more odious policies of the Trump administration." He uploaded a similar fugue to YouTube the following year, " Boris Johnson is a Lying Shit" in the run up to the 2019 general election. The video had been played over 100,000 times by election day.

References

External links

*
Donald Trump is a Wanker
- fugue *
Boris Johnson is a Lying Shit
- fugue {{DEFAULTSORT:Comeau, Ben Alumni of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Alumni of the Royal Academy of Music British classical composers British classical pianists British organists