Benjamin Powell performs across the UK and abroad both as a soloist and as a chamber musician, and gives regular concerts of contemporary music. He studied in Manchester and Cologne with Carole Presland, Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Alexander Melnikov. He currently lives in Manchester, and is a staff pianist at the RNCM. The Powell Trio, which he formed with Oliver Heath and Christopher Murray, are Young Artists in Residence at Salford University.
Benjamin is very involved in music education, teaching piano at the Junior RNCM, for Yorkshire Young Musicians and privately. Equally at home in chamber music, song, and solo recitals, Benjamin Powell has performed across the UK and Europe in venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, and Bridgewater Hall. Forthcoming engagements include the Purcell Room, Blackheath Halls, and St. James’s Piccadilly. His recent solo recital for the Park Lane Group’s New Year Series in the Purcell Room was highly acclaimed: ‘Benjamin Powell demonstrated an immense range of tone and sound in his programme: granite and stern for Stockhausen, brilliantly light-fingered in Elliott Carter, fiery and moody for Anthony Gilbert, volcanically sensuous in Scriabin.’ (Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph)
Benjamin was born and raised in West Sussex and has lived in Manchester since 1999. He studied with Carole Presland at the Royal Northern College of Music and later with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Alexander Melnikov at the Hochschule für Musik Cologne and RNCM respectively.
First prize was awarded to Benjamin Powell at the prestigious British Contemporary Piano Competition Oct 2010, held at the University of Surrey. Philip Mead, Founder, Artistic Director and member of the jury, said of the winner, Benjamin Powell has shown himself as a consummate musician with a transcendent pianistic technique in the service of a refined musicality. Some of his performances during the competition were truly breath-taking. He was a worthy first prize winner.
Benjamin has performed across the UK and Europe in venues including the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Wigmore Hall, and Bridgewater Hall, and his trio, with Oliver Heath and Christopher Murray, are currently Young Artists in Residence at Salford University. Since 2007, Benjamin has been a staff pianist at the Royal Northern College of Music.