Benjamin P Wenzelberg

I’m a Harvard College alumnus (AB ’21) now based between the East coast and Amsterdam, working as a conductor, composer, countertenor and pianist. I wrote a new opera commissioned by Lowell House Opera, NIGHTTOWN, in 2022, and conducted its World Premiere production with LHO in Sanders Theatre — the piece is an adaptation of Joyce’s Ulysses (I’m also a Hum10 alum, for any Humanities enthusiasts reading!) told through the eyes and voices of women and nonbinary characters in the novel (and the literature that informed it), with a focus on dramaturgical and compositional flexibility for performers across the gender spectrum. My conducting experiences include guest conducting the Boston Pops, Tonkünstler-Orchester, Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, and members of Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, conducting in masterclasses with conductors Marin Alsop (Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme), Jaap van Zweden (Gstaad Menuhin Festival), and Stefan Asbury (Tanglewood Music Center), Music Directing Harvard College Opera, Lowell House Opera, and the Mozart Society Orchestra during my time at Harvard, and assistant conducting with Boston Lyric Opera, Atlanta Symphony, Phoenix Symphony, Belgian National Orchestra, Dutch National Opera Academy, Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest, and Residentie Orkest. As a countertenor, I’ve performed in opera roles and as a concert soloist with/at the New York Philharmonic, New York City Opera, Atlanta Opera, the Portland Symphony Orchestra, American Bach Soloists, Phoenix Symphony, Columbus Symphony, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. I’m excited to chat with everyone about all things music, literature, languages, theater, contemporary audiences and art-making as citizenship, Lowell House (Opera), and Harvard arts-related!