About

Ben Kazez is a baritone working across Europe in oratorio, opera, and recital, appearing as a soloist with ensembles including the Academy of Ancient Music, La Cetra Barockorchester, B'Rock Orchestra, Vox Luminis, the Netherlands Bach Society, and Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht.

Highlights of 2025/26 include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with La Cetra under Andrea Marcon (Basel Stadtcasino, Freiburg Konzerthaus, Swiss radio broadcast), Bach cantata 32 with B’Rock Orchestra and Cecilia Bernardini, Stölzel cantata solos under Florian Heyerick (recorded live for CPO), and Bach, Telemann, and Graupner cantatas with the Academy of Ancient Music under Laurence Cummings. He also sings Handel’s Theodora with Thomas Dunford’s Ensemble Jupiter at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Bozar Brussels, and the Royal Chapel of Versailles.

Recent engagements include Pilate in Bach’s Matthew Passion with the Netherlands Bach Society under Masato Suzuki, the title role in Handel’s Hercules under Václav Luks in Barcelona’s Petit Palau, Valens in Theodora under Christian Curnyn at Snape Maltings. He has also performed Barber's Dover Beach and a contemporary premiere on Vlieland, Schubert songs with Laurens de Man, Zelenka solos with Vox Luminis in Paris, Bach cantatas in Leipzig (broadcast on German radio), Kuhnau and Buxtehude at Musikfest Bremen, and one-per-part Matthew Passion tours with Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht under Johannes Leertouwer.

Ben forms a regular duo with Dutch Music Prize–winning organist and pianist Laurens de Man, with programmes ranging from Gregorian chant to masterworks of Schütz, Bach, Schubert, and Wolf, to drinking songs of CPE Bach, to Tom Lehrer satire and contemporary premieres. Upcoming projects include recitals at Muziekgebouw Kleine Zaal and Leidse Salon, and a recording of Brahms’s Vier ernste Gesänge.

• Handel Messiah, Cincinnati
  Ben Kazez was a forceful presence in 'Why do the nations so furiously rage,' as he navigated its treacherous vocal passages against furious tremolos in the strings.
  Cincinnati Business Courier
  Cincinnati Business Courier, on Handel's Messiah
• Handel L'Allegro, San Francisco
  Remarkable, too, was Allegro bass Benjamin Kazez in the aria 'Mirth, admit me of thy crew.'
  San Francisco Classical Voice
  San Francisco Classical Voice, on Handel's L'Allegro

Ben trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and as a Britten–Pears young artist while singing in the Monteverdi Choir under Sir John Eliot Gardiner across Europe’s major stages. Originally a software designer, he has built apps described as “brilliant” by the New York Times, runs VMII.org — a searchable index of early vocal music drawing half a million visitors a year – and is also a recording engineer with upcoming projects for CPO and other labels.