Benson Wilson is a New Zealand-born baritone opera singer of Samoan heritage currently based in London, United Kingdom.

Life

Born in New Zealand to a Samoan family, Wilson was raised in the Seventh Day Adventist faith in which song was a part of daily life. He was able to harmonise while singing from age 5, but his vocal talent was not recognised until he was 15, when he began singing in the New Zealand Secondary Students Choir and entering competitions. Although tall and muscular, he was banned from playing rugby by his mother for fear of injury. Wilson spent his teenage years in Havelock North, where he won Hawke's Bay Young Musician of the Year in 2009. He attended

Havelock North High School Havelock North High School is a state co-education secondary school located in Havelock North, New Zealand. HNHS has a head boy and head girl chosen by the Form 7 (Year 13) students at the start of the year as well as the secretary. HNHS is spl ...

. Wilson graduated in 2014 from the

University of Auckland , mottoeng = By natural ability and hard work , established = 1883; years ago , endowment = NZD $293 million (31 December 2021) , budget = NZD $1.281 billion (31 December 2021) , chancellor = Cecilia Tarrant , vice_chancellor = Dawn F ...

with a Bachelor of Music Honours (Vocal Performance), and was awarded the Vice-Chancellor's Cultural Grant. He won the Symphony prize in the 2015 IFAC Australian Singing Competition, which gave him a year's free tuition at the

Guildhall School of Music and Drama The Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a conservatoire and drama school located in the City of London, United Kingdom. Established in 1880, the school offers undergraduate and postgraduate training in all aspects of classical music and jazz ...

in London starting in 2016. Wilson and his partner Isabella Moore met in the Secondary Students Choir, but did not become romantically involved until 2019, and got engaged on Valentine's Day 2021.

Career

Wilson was a member of the

New Zealand Youth Choir The New Zealand Youth Choir is a mixed choir consisting of around 50 singers, auditioned nationally every 3 years from around New Zealand. The choir accepts members aged between 18 and 25 at the time of audition, and places will generally be offe ...

from 2011, and toured the US and Canada with the choir in 2013. He was a member of

New Zealand Opera New Zealand Opera is New Zealand's only full-time professional opera company, formed in 2000 from the merger of companies in Auckland and Wellington (and later Christchurch). New Zealand Opera is headquartered in Parnell, Auckland, stages severa ...

's Chapman Tripp Chorus in 2014. In September 2019 he joined the Young Artists Programme of the

National Opera Studio The National Opera Studio in London, England was established in 1977 by the Arts Council as a link between the music colleges and the six main UK opera companies. It was resident at Morley College in Lambeth until 2003, when it gained use for t ...

in the UK. IN 2020–2021 he was a Harewood Artist in training at

English National Opera English National Opera (ENO) is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with The Royal Opera. ENO's productions are sung in English ...

. With Bloomsbury Opera he performed Count Almaviva in ''Le nozze di Figaro'' and Guglielmo in ''Così fan tutte.'' His first roles with English National Opera were Schaunard in ''

La bohème ''La bohème'' (; ) is an opera in four acts,Puccini called the divisions '' quadri'', '' tableaux'' or "images", rather than ''atti'' (acts). composed by Giacomo Puccini between 1893 and 1895 to an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giusep ...

'' and John Shears in the

Benjamin Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

operetta ''

Paul Bunyan Paul Bunyan is a giant lumberjack and folk hero in American and Canadian folklore. His exploits revolve around the tall tales of his superhuman labors, and he is customarily accompanied by Babe the Blue Ox. The character originated in the o ...

.'' He has also performed Marullo in ''

Rigoletto ''Rigoletto'' is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the 1832 play '' Le roi s'amuse'' by Victor Hugo. Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had co ...

'' for Glyndebourne on Tour in 2019 and John Sorel in Menotti's ''

The Consul ''The Consul'' is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, his first full-length opera. Performance history Its first performance was on March 1, 1950 at the Schubert Theatre in Philadelphia with Patricia Neway as t ...

'' at

Welsh National Opera Welsh National Opera (WNO) ( cy, Opera Cenedlaethol Cymru) is an opera company based in Cardiff, Wales; it gave its first performances in 1946. It began as a mainly amateur body and transformed into an all-professional ensemble by 1973. In its ...

in 2020, as well as alongside both the London Symphony Orchestra and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. in mid-2020, having had multiple contracts cancelled due to the COVID pandemic, Benson and Moore returned to New Zealand to tour a recital programme. They performed at Auckland Chamber Concert Hall, Hawkes Bay Opera House, and Auckland Opera Studio. In November 2020 they were both part of a group of New Zealand singers in London who recorded the concert ''Whānau: London Voices of Aotearoa, far from home'' at the Royal Albert Hall. In an April 25 ( Anzac Day) 2021 recital at

Leeds Town Hall Leeds Town Hall is a 19th-century municipal building on The Headrow (formerly Park Lane), Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Planned to include law courts, a council chamber, offices, a public hall, and a suite of ceremonial rooms, it was built be ...

entitled "Maumaraha" (Remembrance), Wilson included two arrangements of the traditional

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

songs ''Oriori! O Nohomaiterangi'' and ''Ake ake kia kahe e!''

Honours and awards

Wlson was a finalist in the 2014 Lexus Song Quest, winning second place to his future partner Isabella Moore. He won first place in the 2015 Napier Aria Competition. He then went on to win the next Lexus Song Quest in 2016, being awarded "Most Promising Opera Singer" and a study scholarship. In 2018 Wilson won the Joan Sutherland and Richard Bonynge Foundation Bel Canto Award, also being awarded the People's Choice award. In 2019 he won the 64th

Kathleen Ferrier award The Kathleen Ferrier Award is a prestigious contest for Opera singers held each April in London, England. The first competition was held in 1956. According to the ''Telegraph'', the competition has a record of "spotting winners". Originally conc ...

, the first Samoan to do so, and was awarded the Most Outstanding Overseas Performer of the Royal Overseas League Competition and the

Worshipful Company of Musicians The Worshipful Company of Musicians is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. Its history dates back to at least 1350. Originally a specialist guild for musicians, its role became an anachronism in the 18th century, when the centre of ...

Award.

References

External links

Artist website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilson, Benson Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Operatic baritones 21st-century New Zealand male opera singers New Zealand people of Samoan descent Pasifika opera singers