For this performance Benjamin and Ben will combine the already unusual sounds of the Reed Organ and Harp together for a unique blend of sounds and styles. They will perform a series of their own arrangements and transcriptions of works originally written separately for both instruments, as well as works written for neither. Compositions by Handel, Grandjany, Elgar, and Boëllmann amongst others will feature.
The music will begin at 11:00 for a one hour performance. There are no tickets for this concert but donations for the performers would be appreciated.
The Performers:
Benjamin Teague
Benjamin Teague (they/them) is a freelance Welsh organist and composer based in Cardiff. Benjamin is a bachelors and masters graduate of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where they studied composition with Michael McCartney and the late Peter Reynolds, alongside organ studies at Llandaff Cathedral with David Geoffrey Thomas. Benjamin is the co-Director of Music and founder of Cardiff Chamber Choir, an ensemble focused on including works by marginalised and/or forgotten composers in their programme alongside the mainstays of modern repertoire. They have performed several concerts together across South Wales. Benjamin is the Director of Music of Canton Chorus, accompanist for Choir With No Name (Cardiff) and Forget Me Not Chorus, and has performed several solo organ recitals across the country, including at St David’s, Bangor, Brecon, Cardiff, Newport, and Bristol Cathedrals, on the 1775/1864 John Snetzler organ at the National Museum of Wales, and as a pianist in the main pavilion of the Eisteddfod Genedlaethol with Choirs For Good in 2024.
Benjamin’s interest in the reed organ has been a long held one, first purchasing an instrument in about 2008. The 1896 Bilhorn Telescope Organ used in today’s performance was completely renovated and retuned to modern pitch by them. It is an American organ from Chicago, and likely found its way over here as an instrument for missionary work in the streets as it folds up into a box. It has been used in numerous performances and church work, finding itself in Baroque orchestras and accompanying choirs and soloists.
Ben Creighton Griffiths
Ben Creighton Griffiths is an Internationally touring jazz and classical harpist based in Wales. He made his International debut at the 2004 1er Concours International de Harpe in Nantes, France where, aged 7, he came second in the Under 18 division. In 2006 he won the Under 13 Division of the Wales International Harp Festival before going on to win the 2008 Junior Lily Laskine competition in Paris, winning a concert harp in the process.
Originally classically trained he now specialises in jazz both as a soloist and with his bands – the Transatlantic Hot Club and Chube. His career has taken him across the world including to America, Canada, the Caribbean, Hong Kong, India, Brazil, and across Europe and has seen him collaborate with musicians such as Catrin Finch, Dennis Rollins MBE, and Tatiana Eva-Marie. As well as a performer he is a composer, most recently developing a concert schedule for his own Concerto for Jazz Harp & Symphony Orchestra. He has taught workshops in jazz across the world and has been a guest tutor in the harp and trad music departments at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
Upcoming appearances at the time of writing include a UK spring tour with the Transatlantic Hot Club, the Welsh premiere of his Concerto with the Cardiff Philharmonic at the BBC Hoddinott Hall, and his first performing trip to Australia in the summer.
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