Benjamin Butterfield

Tenor, Benjamin Butterfield was born in Halifax NS in 1964, his musical life commencing in Victoria BC as a boy chorister at Christ Church Cathedral. Formal voice studies followed with Selena James at the Victoria Conservatory of Music while in attendance at the University of Victoria. He later attended the Banff Centre for the Performing Arts in the Music Theater Studio Ensemble before accepting a scholarship to McGill University in Montreal to study with William Neil. After graduation he received grants from the Canada Council to study with Diane Forlano and Leopold Simoneau and also received assistance from the Sullivan Foundation in New York City to study in New York, London and Toronto, as well as in Italy. Other teachers have included: Sir Thomas Allan, Peter Schreier, Elly Ameling, Rudolph Piernay, Noelle Barker, Margreet Honing, Roger Vignoles and Michael McMahon.

Mr. Butterfield’s career highlights have included tours with Trevor Pinnock and the English Concert as well as with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre throughout Europe, Israel and North America. He has also toured with the Welsh National Opera (Barber of Seville), New York City Opera (Magic Flute) and Canterbury Opera in New Zealand (Eugene Onegin) and has worked with Jonathan Miller at Glimmerglass (Tamerlano). He has performed To Hope at the Montreal Jazz Festival with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Britten’s War Requiem in Thessalonika with the London Philharmonia Choir and Stravinsky’s Persephone with actress Isabella Rossellini opening the 2000 – 01 opera season at the San Carlo in Naples, Italy as well as touring with that company to the ancient amphitheater of Epidaurus in Greece. Other engagements have included Carnegie Hall with the Oratorio Society of New York, performing with the Chicago Symphony under James Conlon at Ravinia, singing the role of Wilhelm Meister in Mignon at Le Capitole in Toulouse and participating in the St. Matthew Passion at the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan under Seiji Ozawa. He has also performed in the Symphony halls of Dallas, Houston, Detroit, San Diego, Boston, San Francisco and Washington as well as at the Sheldonian Hall, Oxford, Kings College Chapel, Cambridge, The Royal Albert Hall in London and at the Royal Court Opera in the Palace of Versailles.

In Canada Mr. Butterfield has sung with the Canadian Opera Company and Montreal Opera as well as in Hamilton, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver and Victoria. Highlights have included his debut at the Sharon Festival in the premiere of Harry Somers’ opera, Serinette, L’enfant et les sortileges with Charles Dutoit and the Montreal Symphony filmed for Channel 4 and Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder with the Toronto Symphony under Jukka Pekka Saraste. Other highlights have included Schmidt’s, Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln with Measha Brugergossman and Ben Heppner at the Toronto International Choral Festival, Britten’s Curlew River with Festival Vancouver and Penderecky’s Polish Requiem in Vancouver with Bruce Pullan. He has also performed regularly with Toronto’s Opera Atelier and Tafelmusik and with Les Violons du Roi of Quebec under Bernard Labadie.

Mr. Butterfield previously taught at York University in Toronto and is on staff at Opera Nuova in Edmonton. He has given Masterclasses at VISI, the Carmel Bach Festival and at institutions across Canada. His recordings are available on CBC Records, Koch International, Dorion, Marquis, Timpani and Musicaleopolis.