Warren Benson has distinguished himself in the world of contemporary music as a composer, conductor, lecturer and writer; he is a musician who is as interested in writing music for orchestras, singers, chamber players and children as he is in exploring the
complexities of the world of the artist.
In his compositions and international recordings, Benson is most noted for his song cycles and pioneering work in behalf of percussionists and wind ensembles. He has been invited to
conduct his works in Australia, Canada, Europe, Great Bitain, Mexico,
Scandinavia and
South America. As an author and lecturer, Benson has also been in demand
worldwide. His
writings have been translated into Spanish and Japanese and he has
lectured in Spanish and
Greek. He also sits on the Board of Directors of numerous musical
organizations, including
the Minuscule University Press, the Chestnut Brass company, the American
Wind Ensemble
Library and the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles
(WASBE).
Born in 1924, and a professional performer by the age of fourteen, Benson,
early in his
career, played timpani in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, graduated from
the University
of Michigan, organized the first touring percussion ensemble in the
eastern United States
(1953), received four Fulbright grants, and was the author and director of
the first pilot
project of the Contemporary Music Project (funded by the Ford Foundation).
More recently,
he has been commissioned by over 80 major artists and ensembles, including
the United
States Marine Band, the International Horn Society, the Rochester
Philharmonic
Orchestra, the New York Choral society, the Bishop Ireton Symphonic Wind
Ensemble and
the Kronos Quartet. He has received numerous distinguished international
awards,
including the John Simon Guggenheim Composer Fellowship, three National
Endowment
for the Arts composer commissions and the Diploma de Honor from the
Ministry of Culture
of the Republic of Argentina. After fourteen years at Ithaca College,
Benson became a
Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music where he was
honored with an Alumni Citation for Excellence, the Kilbourn Professorship for
distinguised teaching and
was named University Mentor. In 1994 he was appointed Professor Emeritus,
completing a
fifty year teaching career which began in 1943 a the Univeristy of
Michigan. As a freshman
there, he was the major teacher for undergraduate and graduate
percussionists and played
third horn in the University Orchestra. He is listed in the first edition
of Who's Who in the
World of Percussion, 1980 to the present, as well as thirty other
biographical dictionaries
including Who's Who in America and Groves Dictionary of Music.
Currently busy writing books, he is a commissioned and published poet and
writer of
humorous fiction. Almost an even dozen commissions for songs, chamber
music and large
ensembles keep him "retired to, not from," as he likes to put it.