Benton
Guitar, Piano, Production, Theory, Composition
Benton is a music composer, performer, and educator with 20 years of teaching experience in a variety of contexts. His specialties are songwriting, theory, composition, production, guitar, and piano (classical, jazz, and rock). Benton's academic formation includes graduate work in music composition from the University of British Columbia (D.M.A. 2013) and degrees at the Oberlin Conservatory and College (B.M. and B.A. 2001), as well as additional studies at the Konservatorium Winterthur, the American Academy in Fontainebleau, the Banff Centre, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts.
As an educator in private lessons and in the classroom at the Vancouver Academy of Music and University of British Columbia, Benton has taught a wide range of subjects - theory, composition, history, and musicianship. He believes in listening, flexibility, letting the students’ needs help shape the curriculum and pedagogical approach. One of his teaching “superpowers” is guiding students in projects involving research and creation, having founded the Vancouver Opera’s New Work Projects, mentored term-length final projects for Memorial University’s inaugural Music and Ecology course, led multiple songwriting/lyric & libretto seminars, and mentored creative projects in secondary schools and underserved communities across Vancouver and surrounding areas through a “Creating Composers” initiative.
Benton's own work as a composer, bandleader, and producer also reflects collaborative and interdisciplinary interests, having composed for a broad spectrum of genres from chamber to orchestral to vocal, with no fewer than five operas to see full production on Canadian stages. His work has been described as “visionary” (The Vancouver Sun), “ardent and soaring” (The National Post), “an experience of deep and darkling beauty” (The Austin Chronicle). Benton has also enjoyed acclaim as a songwriter and bandleader with projects such as The Benton Roark Band, Rollaway (“backwoods choir elegance” The Georgia Straight), Mother Country ("The Sign of Jonas" on Milltown Records, 2024), and Arkora (“the standout event of Vancouver’s spring music season” Vancouver Observer), whose Songs from the Rainshadow’s Edge earned me a 2016 WCMA nomination for Composition of the Year. He especially has a penchant for hard-to-categorize projects such as award-winning sci-fi radio drama podcasts, XR-driven theatre spectacles, immersive, site-specific musical experiences, and the creation of acoustic and electronic microtonal instruments.
