Associate ProfessorRoger Benedict

Roger Benedict’s career has encompassed work as a conductor, soloist, orchestral player, chamber musician and teacher. From 1991 -2000 principal viola in the Philharmonia Orchestra, London, and following that the same position in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, since 2002 Roger has been Artistic Director of the Sydney Symphony’s acclaimed Fellowship Program. At the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, where he is an Associate Professor, Roger is Chief Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra and also heads the viola department. From 1997 – 2002 he held a teaching position at the Royal Northern College of Music in the UK,and he gives masterclasses throughout Europe and Asia.

A frequent guest conductor with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Roger has conducted the orchestra in subscription concerts at the Sydney Opera House, at City Recital Hall and on tour. He regularly conducts the Sydney Symphony Fellowship Orchestra, including concerts at the Sydney Opera House and in regional centres. He also appears as a conductor with other orchestras in Australasia such as the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra and Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, and in the UK with the Southbank Sinfonia.A devoted orchestral trainer, he has coached the European Union Youth Orchestra since 2000, and is a frequent conductor of Australian Youth Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra (UK) programs.

Roger has enjoyed considerable success as a solo viola player. As a viola soloist he has appeared with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Ulster Orchestra in the UK as well as the Sydney Symphony, Canberra Symphony, New Zealand Symphony and the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa (Japan). With the Sydney Symphony alone he has performed as a soloist over twenty times.

Roger Benedict’s recital CD Volupté (with pianist Timothy Young) of rare works by Charles Koechlin and Joseph Jongen, released by Melba Recordings in 2010, was greeted with considerable critical acclaim and selected as one of the ten best recordings of 2010 by www.theclassicalreview.com. His recording of Vaughan Williams’ Flos Campi with the Sydney Symphony was released by the same label in 2011, and a disc of music by Hans Gál and Ernst Krenek (Voices in the Wilderness) in 2014. His latest recording, A Winter’s Tale, featuring music by Schubert and Schumann with pianist Simon Tedeschi, was released in 2018 on the Universal/ABC Classics label.

Roger has gained admiration for his adventurous and imaginative programming, and also for his dedication to outreach and community activity – for example through presenting concerts and workshops in schools, prisons and corporate settings. Equally passionate about using music to raise awareness and support for charitable causes, Roger has conceived and conductedseveral highly successful fundraising concertswith the ensemble he founded, Orchestra for Life. These include the Concert for Life series that since 2015 has raised significant sums for suicide prevention and Indigenous mental health charities.

Roger is active as a writer, editor and arranger; recent publications include viola transcriptions of works by Schubert and Mozart and a new scale method for viola, Scale Up! - all published by Partitura-Verlag. He also writes regularly for journals such as The Strad.