Baritone Ben Kazez initially studied computer science before embarking on a career in music, eventually becoming a Britten–Pears Young Artist and finishing postgraduate studies at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama in summer 2018.
In 2017 Ben began singing in the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner, first with Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and then with English Baroque Soloists: Monteverdi L’Orfeo, Poppea, and Ulisse at the Salzburg Festival and Venice La Fenice; Monteverdi Vespers at Versailles, Basilique de St Denis (Paris), and the cathedrals of Pisa and Cremona. With Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique he sang Berlioz Damnation of Faust at Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms. Later in the season he also joined the group for Verdi Requiem with Tonhalle-Orchestra Zürich.
Recent solo concert performances include Handel’s Theodora under Dame Sarah Connolly and Christian Curnyn at Snape Maltings (England), Bach cantatas at Snape Maltings (England) with Mark Padmore, Handel’s Acis and Galatea with The Bishops’s Consort (England), and several performances with Dame Emma Kirkby’s Dowland Works project. Ben’s other concert repertoire includes Brahms Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Mozart Requiem and masses, Vaughan Williams Serenade to Music, Barber’s Dover Beach, and several dozen Bach cantatas.
On the operatic stage, Ben has sung Re di Scozia (Ariodante), Zoroastro (Orlando), Grand Priest (Marais’s Sémélé), and Don Basilio (Paisiello’s Barber of Seville). Upcoming concerts include Bach St Matthew Passion in Durham, England; Verdi Requiem at Vienna Musikverein and Amsterdam Concertgebouw in the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner; and additional Monteverdi Choir tours.