Biography
Benjamin Russell was born in Dublin, Ireland. He studied singing at the Royal Irish Academy of Music with with coach Brenda Hurley and teacher Sylvia O’Regan. He then joined the International Opera Studio at the Zurich Opera House. Here he sang various parts, among them Abraham Gray in the premier of Die Schatzinsel by Frank Schwemmer and the Jazz Trio in Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti.
Following on from Zurich, he joined the ensemble of the Hessisches Staatstheater. During his time in Wiesbaden his roles included Wolfram von Eschenbach in Tannhäuser, Figaro and Conte Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro, Papageno in Die Zauberflöte, Figaro in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Jeletsky in Pique Dame, Peter in Hänsel und Gretel, Sharpless in Madama Butterfly and Fritz Kothner in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg among others. He also created the role of Snowman in the World Premier of Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake, composed by Søren Nils Eichberg.
Other career highlights include singing Junius in the 2011 production of Britten's The Rape of Lucretia at the Aldeburgh Festival which was nominated for a Grammy Award for ‘Best Opera Recording’. In September 2017, he performed the title role in Britten’s Owen Wingrave for Opera Collective Ireland and in 2023 he made his Irish National Opera debut as Guglielmo in Cosí fan tutte.
The 2023-24 season sees Benjamin return to Wiesbaden as Papageno in a new production of Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, as well as Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro and Wolfram in Tannhauser. He will also be returning to Ireland with Irish National Opera singing Alcandro in Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade which will also include performances in Switzerland and The Royal Opera House in London.
Benjamin has performed regularly in concerts, both at home and abroad, including Mahler's Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen and Bach’s Cantata BWV 82 with the Wiesbaden Sinfonieorchester, Puccini’s Missa di Gloria with the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra and Faure’s Requiem with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. He has previously recorded a CD of English songs by Finzi and Vaughan Williams with the pianist Christina Domnick and 2024 will see the release of a CD of songs by Charles Villiers Stanford recorded with mezzo Sharon Carty and pianist Finghin Collins.
Benjamin’s competition successes include winning the Richard Tauber Prize for the best interpretation of Schubert Lieder at the Wigmore Hall Song Competition 2019, 3rd Prize (Deutsches Fach) in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg Singing Competition 2018, finalist in the Veronica Dunne International Singing competition 2010, where he also received the Joan Sutherland prize for 'Most Promising Singer’ and semifinalist and prizewinner in the 2010 International Vocal Competition in s'Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands.