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.
Recital venues include Dunfermline Abbey (J. S. Bach's complete solo violin works, Outwith Festival 2023), Laidlaw Music Centre (St Andrews), Wighton Heritage Centre (Dundee), Schloß Bad Krozingen, the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe, and the Grand Opera House (Wilmington, Delaware, USA), with chamber music performances taking him to 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). He has been enriched by collaborations with 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, Britain, 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 premiere recording of the violin-piano sonatas of Karén Khanagov with Anastasia Abu Bakar.
In the orchestral realm, he has served as regular 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 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 Heisenberg Ensemble, Oklahoma Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Enid Symphony, and a chamber orchestra of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. Other groups with whom he has performed 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 studios have won leadership chairs with the Tulsa and Amarillo Symphonies, founded ensembles including the Oklahoma Baroque Orchestra, been accepted into prestigious graduate programs (Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Rice University, Northwestern University, and the University of Colorado—Boulder), and even appeared on Twoset Violin (eclipsing their teacher!). 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 win leadership chairs with orchestras including the Lübeck Philharmonic, Sichuan Symphony, 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.” Published editions include reconstructions of J. S. Bach’s lost D-minor violin concerto BWV 1052R and incompletely surviving D-major sinfonia BWV 1045 (PRB Productions), which have been performed in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Liszt Academy Budapest, and the Staatstheater Mecklenburg; a critical edition of Bach's youthful G-minor fugue BWV 1026 (PRB); and most recently a historically informed transcription of Bach's C-minor double concerto BWV 1060 in trio scoring (Prima la Musica). Other content has appeared on forums including The Strad and Tonebase Violin, and his method book The Harmonic Violinist is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
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. His
Adoramus for solo violin was a finalist for the 2023 American Prize in chamber music composition.
Growing up in the beautiful Brandywine River Valley of Wilmington, Delaware, USA (Lenape), 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.
Recital venues include Dunfermline Abbey (J. S. Bach's complete solo violin works, Outwith Festival 2023), Laidlaw Music Centre (St Andrews), Wighton Heritage Centre (Dundee), Schloß Bad Krozingen, the Boston Early Music Festival Fringe, and the Grand Opera House (Wilmington, Delaware, USA), with chamber music performances taking him to 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). He has been enriched by collaborations with 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, Britain, 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 premiere recording of the violin-piano sonatas of Karén Khanagov with Anastasia Abu Bakar.
In the orchestral realm, he has served as regular 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 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 Heisenberg Ensemble, Oklahoma Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra, Enid Symphony, and a chamber orchestra of the Oklahoma City Philharmonic. Other groups with whom he has performed 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 studios have won leadership chairs with the Tulsa and Amarillo Symphonies, founded ensembles including the Oklahoma Baroque Orchestra, been accepted into prestigious graduate programs (Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music, Rice University, Northwestern University, and the University of Colorado—Boulder), and even appeared on Twoset Violin (eclipsing their teacher!). 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 win leadership chairs with orchestras including the Lübeck Philharmonic, Sichuan Symphony, 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.” Published editions include reconstructions of J. S. Bach’s lost D-minor violin concerto BWV 1052R and incompletely surviving D-major sinfonia BWV 1045 (PRB Productions), which have been performed in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Liszt Academy Budapest, and the Staatstheater Mecklenburg; a critical edition of Bach's youthful G-minor fugue BWV 1026 (PRB); and most recently a historically informed transcription of Bach's C-minor double concerto BWV 1060 in trio scoring (Prima la Musica). Other content has appeared on forums including The Strad and Tonebase Violin, and his method book The Harmonic Violinist is forthcoming from Oxford University Press.
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. His
Adoramus for solo violin was a finalist for the 2023 American Prize in chamber music composition.
Growing up in the beautiful Brandywine River Valley of Wilmington, Delaware, USA (Lenape), 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.