Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg is one of those people to whom well-meaning mentors probably often said: Maybe it would be wise to focus on one thing. But Wenzelberg, who at the age of 26 already has a considerable track record as a conductor, composer and countertenor, is not interested in such ‘specialization’, he says in a video call. “I think you can specialize in several things. The distinction between specialists and generalists is a bit outdated anyway. Why would you limit yourself to things that people are used to?”
Friday Wenzelberg conducts in the Rotterdam Doelen ensemble Het Muziek (formerly Asko|Schönberg) in the contemporary oratorio Shelter (2005) by composers Michael Gordon, David Lang and Julia Wolfe, the driving forces behind the New York collective Bang on a Can. “Three very different composers who use their differences to build something together: that is not only fascinating musically, but also on a conceptual level,” says Wenzelberg. Visual artist Johannes Offerhaus places the performance in a kinetic installation that moves with the ensemble. The repeat will be next Thursday Music building in Amsterdam.
Singing conductor
Contemporary music like Shelter is close to his heart as a composer, says Wenzelberg. But that also applies to a lot of other music: baroque, twentieth-century French opera. And Mozart of course. Last month Wenzelberg toured the Netherlands with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, where he recently ‘artistic partner & creative associate‘ is, in a production of. directed by Jorinde Keesmaat Le nozze di Figaro. He led some parts from behind the fortepiano (he is also a pianist, indeed). And when mezzo Maria Warenberg (“a dear friend”) missed the last two performances due to a cold, Wenzelberg turned around and sang Cherubino’s arias himself.
“Conducting is the heart of my work, but it does not exclude other activities. I am always busy with a new composition, rehearsing new music, studying and performing as a singer and pianist. All these different aspects of my artistry are charged with meaning and intention for me, and I take great care in planning my activities. They enrich each other. The intersection is where the power is“, says Wenzelberg. His versatility is not only the balancing act of a multi-talent, but also an attitude to life: against exclusion and discrimination, in favor of the richness of what deviates from the norm.
I am always busy with a new composition, rehearsing new music, studying and performing as a singer and pianist
Early next year, the Dutch public can become acquainted with Wenzelberg as a composer. In March he will conduct the world premiere of the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra The tenth musewith Maria Warenberg as soloist, in a program with music from Haydn to Stravinsky and Gershwin. A month earlier, in February, Wenzelbergs opera Nighttown its European premiere at Amare in The Hague in a production by the Dutch National Opera Academy. NighttownAn ‘operatic reimagining‘ by Ulysses by James Joyce, was awarded the American Prize for Composition in the musical theater category.
Grew up in the opera house
Wenzelberg “grew up” in the opera house: as a child he sang for eight years in the choir of the Metropolitan Opera in his native New York. “So my multidisciplinarity has a specific source,” he says of his early exposure to opera. He studied at Juilliard and then at Harvard (music and English literature), where he graduated with the highest distinction, and last year he graduated from the National Master of Orchestral Conducting (NMO), the joint master’s program of the conservatories of The Hague and Amsterdam. He really enjoys commuting between New York and Amsterdam.
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Kenneth Montgomery had a broad view and a great love for Mozart’s operas
At NMO Wenzelberg met the renowned conductor Kenneth Montgomery. Montgomery saw something in the young American and appointed him as an executive assistant at a Haydn’s production L’isola disabitata with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century: “Kenneth let me lead rehearsals, and I was allowed to do a concert for sponsors. There was immediately a wonderful synergy with the orchestra.”
When Montgomery died quite suddenly in March 2023, it became clear L’isola disabitata his last production, and Wenzelberg his last assistant. “Kenneth’s death is a great loss, professionally and personally. I owe him a lot. The fact that the orchestra then asked me to fill in for him was an incredible gift.”
Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg.
Photo Andy Staples
‘Artistic partner’
Both sides liked the collaboration so much that a follow-up was immediately initiated. The title ‘artistic partner’ was coined because they work together so much, says Wenzelberg. “The Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century feels like coming home to me. Le nozze di Figaro was my first project as an ‘artistic partner’ and it was one of the happiest periods of my life. The level of detail of the musicians, the sensational cast, the direction. I will carry the artistic experience and connection with me for the rest of my life.”
And now from Mozart to Bang on a Can: it seems like a big leap, but Wenzelberg considers himself fortunate that he is “connected to both ends of music history.” Moreover: The Music Director Fedor Teunisse considers Shelter as one contemporary answer on Handels Messiahand Wenzelberg sees something in that: “The oratorio is a very powerful form of telling a story. Because there is no set, you have more distance, it is more meditative than opera. Opera is in my DNA, I love opera dearly, but with opera you are thrown into a world, you are in the middle of the action. With the oratorio, the focus is on building a world.”
Shelter
And building a world, a shelter, is true in a sense Shelter is about, both the libretto by Deborah Artman and the music. “On a micro level, music consists of cells that are repeated over and over again. Those cells are so strong – take the first notes of the pieceon the words ‘before I enter my house‘: they ask to be repeated, they derive their impact from that repetition. A crispy, taut tissue is created that bursts with energy. The paradox, or the magic, is that the direct and unambiguous level of detail gradually evokes a stunning sensation of vastness and emptiness. The music itself becomes a space and provides shelter. In this she reminds me of Bruckner, who also built ‘cathedrals’ of sound with concrete, non-ambiguous means.”
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