BENJAMIN CARSON, VIOLIN

A freelance musician and a native of Boston, violinist Benjamin Carson has performed with ensembles across New England such as the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cape Cod Chamber Orchestra, CODA Ensemble, and Phoenix Orchestra. Mr. Carson has performed across the United States, Europe, Asia, and South America, in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Boston Symphony Hall, Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, Fukuoka Symphony Hall in Japan, and Shostakovich Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia. He has led numerous orchestras under renowned conductors such as Michael Tilson-Thomas, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Andres Nelsons, Alan Gilbert, Stephan Denève, James Gaffigan, Bernard Labadie, and Susana Malki.

An avid performer of contemporary music, Carson was personally selected to be concertmaster of the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra by Matthias Pintscher after collaborating together on Pierre Boulez’s …explosante-fixe... Furthermore, he has premiered several works by composers Olga Neuwirth, Konstansia Gourzi, Osvaldo Golijov, and John Williams. During his fellowship with the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, he sat as concertmaster for Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra, where he was praised for his ‘invested solos….played with apt Viennese flavor’ (South Florida Classical Review).

As a music educator, he teaches privately out of his own studio and works as the violin teaching artist at the Boston Youth Symphony Orchestras. During his tenure with the New World Symphony, Mr. Carson regularly taught lessons and sectionals at Miami Beach Senior High School and the Ruth K. Broad K-8 Center. He was also selected to travel to Colombia for a Medellín exchange program with the Academia Filarmónica de Medellín, where he taught lessons, coached masterclasses, chamber groups, and orchestral sectionals with students studying at the conservatory. Mr. Carson's pedagogue instructors include Stacia Spencer, Mimi Zweig, and Magdalena Richter. Mr. Carson received his Bachelors of Arts in 2011 from Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music studying with Almita Vamos and his Masters in Music in 2013 from the New England Conservatory studying with former Boston Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Malcolm Lowe.