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Benjamin Shute (DMA, BM, New England Conservatory; Diplom KA, Hochschule für Musik Freiburg) has enjoyed a multifaceted career as modern and period violinist, musicologist, composer, and teacher.
Since his concerto debut as a teenager at the Opening Night Gala of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Stephen Gunzenhauser, he has collaborated as soloist with modern- and period-instrument orchestras in the States and Europe in concertos of Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, Paganini, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Sibelius, as well as concert works from Bach to Sarasate to John Williams.
He has appeared in recital at Schloßkonzerte Bad Krozingen, the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe, the Wilmington Grand Opera House (Delaware, USA), and universities across the USA, with chamber music performances taking him to venues including the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), Jordan Hall (Boston), the Philips Collection (Washington, DC), New York's Jewish Museum, An Die Musik (Baltimore), Château du Val (France), Landgrafenschloss Marburg (Germany), Santa Maria Assunto Positano (Italy), and the city halls of Sorrento (Italy) and Chichibu (Japan). His collaborators have included a diverse array of colleagues, including orchestral principals (Pittsburgh Symphony, RAI Symphony Turin, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Shenzhen Symphony, Apollo’s Fire, Boston Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society, etc.) and members of such ensembles as the Vienna and Lysander piano trios and the Formosa, Parker, Jasper, Blair, Carpe Diem and Diderot quartets. With harpsichordist and pianist Anastasia Abu Bakar he has appeared in Germany and across the USA as the Highlands Duo, performing music from the 17th to 21st centuries on period instruments.
CD recordings include "In Sara Levy's Salon" with the Raritan Players (period instruments), the complete piano-violin sonatas of Brahms with pianist Kai-Ching Chang, and the violin-piano sonatas of Karén Khanagov with Anastasia Abu Bakar.
In the orchestral realm, he has appeared as leader of the Boston Chamber Orchestra, Tactus Chamber Orchestra (Oklahoma City, USA), Heisenberg Ensemble (St Andrews, Scotland), and a number of freelance ensembles on either side of the Atlantic, having previously served as concertmaster of the orchestras of the New England Conservatory and Musikhochschule Freiburg as well as co-founding director of the New England Conservatory Early Music Society. He has been invited as guest director-soloist with ensembles including the Oklahoma Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Enid Symphony, and a chamber orchestra of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic (with whom he held a Tier A first violin chair). Other groups with whom he has performed as section player include the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Freiburger Kammerorchester, Freiburger Bachorchester, and period-instrument ensembles including the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, Grand Harmonie, Ars Viva Freiburg, and Brandywine Baroque.
A committed teacher, graduates of his university violin studio have gone on hold leadership positions with the Tulsa (Oklahoma) and Amarillo (Texas) symphonies and also include the co-founders of the Oklahoma Baroque Orchestra. Students whom he has coached at summer festivals in the USA, Europe, and Japan have gone on to study at leading conservatoires (Juilliard, Eastman, Cleveland Institute, New England Conservatory, Royal College of Music Stockholm, etc.) and to perform with orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Rochester Philharmonic, and Alabama Symphony.
Currently teaching at the University of St Andrews Music Centre, he previously held full-time or full-time equivalent posts at the Oklahoma City University Wanda L. Bass School of Music, Oklahoma Baptist Unviersity, and Dickinson College, as well as part-time positions at the New England Conservatory, Cairn University, and Cecil College, teaching courses in modern and period violin, modern- and period-instrument chamber music, composition, harmony, analysis, literature studies, music history, and other subjects. At Oklahoma City University, he also worked jointly with Anastasia Abu Bakar to co-direct the Oklahoma City University Early Music Ensemble, bringing it to national attention in the 2021 Early Music America Young Performers Festival and engaging in an array of projects including a period-instrument production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and the premier of a new opera for period and electronic instruments written by OCU student composers.
Musicological publications include the monograph Sei Solo: Symbolum? The Theology of J. S. Bach’s Solo Violin Works, which was deemed “very compelling” by the UK’s Early Music Review and was described in the American Record Guide as “one of the most rewarding books I have read on music.” His critical reconstructions of J. S. Bach’s lost D-minor violin concerto BWV 1052R and incompletely surviving D-major sinfonia BWV 1045, among other critical editions, are published by PRB Productions and have been performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Liszt Academy Budapest, and the Staatstheater Mecklenburg.
His original compositions and transcriptions have been heard at the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music and performed by ensembles including the Brandywine Baroque Orchestra, Oklahoma Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, and Boston Recorder Orchestra.
Growing up in the beautiful Brandywine River Valley of Wilmington, Delaware, USA, he received his earliest violin lessons from Kathleen Hastings before entering the studio of Lee Snyder at Philadelphia’s Settlement Music School. Subsequent mentors who deeply impacted him include Rainer Kussmaul (first concertmaster, Berliner Philharmoniker/Berliner Barock Solisten), Bernhard Forck (concertmaster, AKAMUS Berlin), Lucy Chapman, Masuko Ushioda, and Robert Hill.
Since his concerto debut as a teenager at the Opening Night Gala of the Delaware Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Stephen Gunzenhauser, he has collaborated as soloist with modern- and period-instrument orchestras in the States and Europe in concertos of Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, Paganini, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, and Sibelius, as well as concert works from Bach to Sarasate to John Williams.
He has appeared in recital at Schloßkonzerte Bad Krozingen, the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe, the Wilmington Grand Opera House (Delaware, USA), and universities across the USA, with chamber music performances taking him to venues including the Kimmel Center (Philadelphia), Jordan Hall (Boston), the Philips Collection (Washington, DC), New York's Jewish Museum, An Die Musik (Baltimore), Château du Val (France), Landgrafenschloss Marburg (Germany), Santa Maria Assunto Positano (Italy), and the city halls of Sorrento (Italy) and Chichibu (Japan). His collaborators have included a diverse array of colleagues, including orchestral principals (Pittsburgh Symphony, RAI Symphony Turin, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Shenzhen Symphony, Apollo’s Fire, Boston Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society, etc.) and members of such ensembles as the Vienna and Lysander piano trios and the Formosa, Parker, Jasper, Blair, Carpe Diem and Diderot quartets. With harpsichordist and pianist Anastasia Abu Bakar he has appeared in Germany and across the USA as the Highlands Duo, performing music from the 17th to 21st centuries on period instruments.
CD recordings include "In Sara Levy's Salon" with the Raritan Players (period instruments), the complete piano-violin sonatas of Brahms with pianist Kai-Ching Chang, and the violin-piano sonatas of Karén Khanagov with Anastasia Abu Bakar.
In the orchestral realm, he has appeared as leader of the Boston Chamber Orchestra, Tactus Chamber Orchestra (Oklahoma City, USA), Heisenberg Ensemble (St Andrews, Scotland), and a number of freelance ensembles on either side of the Atlantic, having previously served as concertmaster of the orchestras of the New England Conservatory and Musikhochschule Freiburg as well as co-founding director of the New England Conservatory Early Music Society. He has been invited as guest director-soloist with ensembles including the Oklahoma Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Enid Symphony, and a chamber orchestra of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic (with whom he held a Tier A first violin chair). Other groups with whom he has performed as section player include the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Freiburger Kammerorchester, Freiburger Bachorchester, and period-instrument ensembles including the Yorkshire Baroque Soloists, Grand Harmonie, Ars Viva Freiburg, and Brandywine Baroque.
A committed teacher, graduates of his university violin studio have gone on hold leadership positions with the Tulsa (Oklahoma) and Amarillo (Texas) symphonies and also include the co-founders of the Oklahoma Baroque Orchestra. Students whom he has coached at summer festivals in the USA, Europe, and Japan have gone on to study at leading conservatoires (Juilliard, Eastman, Cleveland Institute, New England Conservatory, Royal College of Music Stockholm, etc.) and to perform with orchestras including the Chicago Symphony, Staatskapelle Dresden, Rochester Philharmonic, and Alabama Symphony.
Currently teaching at the University of St Andrews Music Centre, he previously held full-time or full-time equivalent posts at the Oklahoma City University Wanda L. Bass School of Music, Oklahoma Baptist Unviersity, and Dickinson College, as well as part-time positions at the New England Conservatory, Cairn University, and Cecil College, teaching courses in modern and period violin, modern- and period-instrument chamber music, composition, harmony, analysis, literature studies, music history, and other subjects. At Oklahoma City University, he also worked jointly with Anastasia Abu Bakar to co-direct the Oklahoma City University Early Music Ensemble, bringing it to national attention in the 2021 Early Music America Young Performers Festival and engaging in an array of projects including a period-instrument production of Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and the premier of a new opera for period and electronic instruments written by OCU student composers.
Musicological publications include the monograph Sei Solo: Symbolum? The Theology of J. S. Bach’s Solo Violin Works, which was deemed “very compelling” by the UK’s Early Music Review and was described in the American Record Guide as “one of the most rewarding books I have read on music.” His critical reconstructions of J. S. Bach’s lost D-minor violin concerto BWV 1052R and incompletely surviving D-major sinfonia BWV 1045, among other critical editions, are published by PRB Productions and have been performed in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Liszt Academy Budapest, and the Staatstheater Mecklenburg.
His original compositions and transcriptions have been heard at the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music and performed by ensembles including the Brandywine Baroque Orchestra, Oklahoma Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, and Boston Recorder Orchestra.
Growing up in the beautiful Brandywine River Valley of Wilmington, Delaware, USA, he received his earliest violin lessons from Kathleen Hastings before entering the studio of Lee Snyder at Philadelphia’s Settlement Music School. Subsequent mentors who deeply impacted him include Rainer Kussmaul (first concertmaster, Berliner Philharmoniker/Berliner Barock Solisten), Bernhard Forck (concertmaster, AKAMUS Berlin), Lucy Chapman, Masuko Ushioda, and Robert Hill.
