Born and raised in Sydney, Benjamin Bayl has earned a reputation as an internationally respected conductor equally active in the orchestral and operatic fields. He became the first Australian Organ Scholar of King’s College Cambridge, and studied conducting at London’s Royal Academy of Music. An alumnus of the National Opera Studio, he was Assistant Conductor to Iván Fischer’s Budapest Festival Orchestra and Paul McCreesh’s Gabrieli Consort.
Benjamin co-founded the Australian Romantic & Classical Orchestra and was Associate Director of The Hanover Band for a decade. He has a busy schedule of conducting engagements, with recent and future highlights including the Melbourne, Sydney, Queensland, Hong Kong, Warsaw, Iceland and Aarhus Symphony Orchestras. He will soon debut with the Orchestre National d’Ïle de France and the Zagreb Philharmonic.
On the opera podium, Benjamin has led productions at many celebrated houses worldwide including the Wiener Staatsoper, Dutch National Opera, Staatsoper Berlin, Royal Danish Opera, Den Norske Opera, Theater an der Wien, Opéra Orchestre Montpellier and Opera Australia.
Working extensively in the period instrument field (both as conductor and directing from the keyboard) recent and regular collaborations include B’Rock, Vocalconsort Berlin, Concerto Copenhagen, Collegium Vocale Gent and Concerto Köln, with whom he recently appeared at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw.