Benjamin Verdery has been described by Guitar Review Magazine as "An American original; an American master." Since his 1980 New York debut with his wife, flutist Rie Schmidt, he has led an exciting and varied musical life. Benjamin Verdery has performed worldwide, including the International Guitar Festival in Havana, Cuba; Festival International de Agosto, Caracas, Venezuela; Theatre Carré in Amsterdam; Chichester Cathedral, England; Bad Urach Schubert Festival in Germany; the 92nd Street Y, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera, New York, the Ambassador Theater in Los Angeles, and concerts in Japan, Korea and Singapore. He has recorded and performed with such diverse artists as Frederic Hand, William Coulter, Leo Kottke, Anthony Newman, Jessye Norman, Paco Peña, Hermann Prey and John Williams. Verdery has also had several composers write music for him, including Daniel Asia, John Anthony Lennon, Ingram Marshall, Anthony Newman, Roberto Sierra, Van Stiefel and Jack Vees. His recordings include: Bach: Transcriptions for Guitar (GRI); The Mask (New World Records) performing Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Romancero Gitano, Op. 152 for chorus and guitar; Reverie: French Music for Flute and Guitar (Schmidt/Verdery Duo, Sony Classical); John Williams Plays Vivaldi (Sony Classical) performing Vivaldi's Concerto in G Major for Two Mandolins; Some Towns and Cities (Sony Classical), Ride the Wind Horse: American Guitar Music (Sony Classical), The Enchanted Dawn (Schmidt/Verdery Duo, GRI) and Song for Our Ancestors (Bill & Ben - William Coulter & Ben Verdery, Solid Air Records). Benjamin has also been a featured artist on two recent releases for the Windham Hill label. In 2001, Benjamin Verdery released Ben Verdery Ufonia (with his ensemble of the same name), and Soepa: American Guitar Music (a follow up to Ride the Wind Horse). In 2005, Benjamin released an album of his compositions entitled Start Now which won the Classical Recording Foundation Award. Benjamin was also appointed curator of 'The Guitar' at the prestigious 92nd St Y in New York City. Soon to be released is an album of arrangements on works by Mozart, Prince, Strauss, Gershwin and Bach. His most recent collaboration is with electric guitarist Andy Summers (formerly of The Police). Earlier this year, Verdery and Summers performed the world premiere of Ingram Marshall's Dark Florescence at Carnegie Hall (New York) with the American Composers Orchestra and Steven Sloane. The European premiere occurred in November 2005 with the Ulster Orchestra at the Belfast Festival (Ireland). In 2006, Andy and Ben will tour as a duo and will release their recording Brotherhood of the Grape. A prolific composer, in recent years Benjamin Verdery has turned his attention to creating unique extended works for large guitar ensembles. Benjamin's Scenes from Ellis Island, for guitar orchestra, has been extensively broadcast and performed at festivals and universities in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Europe, and the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet performed it on their CD Air and Ground (Sony Classical). Pick and Roll was premiered in 2000 at the UC Santa Cruz Contemporary Festival, written for multiple guitars, saxophone, violin and basketball player. Mr. Verdery premiered his Etudes for guitar orchestra in May 2004 at the Virginia International Festival, commissioned by the Tidewater Classical Guitar Society. Many of his chamber and solo compositions have been performed and published in recent years. In 1996, John Williams recorded Verdery's duo version of Capitola, CA for Sony Classical. Workshop Arts (distributed by Alfred Music) published the solo works from his recording Some Towns and Cities. The recording includes fifteen original compositions, and won the 1992 Best Classical Guitar Recording in Guitar Player Magazine. They also released Verdery's book, Easy Classical Guitar Recital as well as his instructional video The Essentials of Classical Guitar (nominated for Best New Instructional Video by Music and Sound Retailer, 2000). Most recently, Doberman-Yppan of Canada has published Verdery's Eleven Etudes from his recording Start Now and will be publishing additional Verdery solo, duo and quartet works for guitar. Since 1985, Benjamin Verdery has been the chair of the guitar department at the Yale University School of Music and is the Artistic Director of the Yale Guitar Extravaganza, a one-day guitar conference featuring guitarists and artists in concert and lectures. Benjamin Verdery is in great demand as an instructor, teaching classes at the Iserlohn Festival, the Classical Guitar Festival of Great Britain, the National Guitar Summer Workshop, and his annual summer master class on the island of Maui, Hawaii.
Benjamin Verdery Website
