Dr Benjamin Wolf

Benjamin Wolf completed his PhD at the Music Department of Royal Holloway, University of London. He currently lectures at Regent's University London, having previously worked as Senior Associate Teacher in the Music Department of Bristol University and as a visiting lecturer at Royal Holloway. At Regent's, he has run many music courses, as well as courses focussing on cultural history, the humanities, and the appreciation of the arts. He is currently Course Leader for the Foundation in Liberal Arts and Media, which forms part of the new integrated Foundation year.

His research focuses on the institutional and social contexts for music in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and on Jewish music (particularly the choral music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries). He has given papers on various individual composers and institutions, including for the International Conference on Analysing Popular Music (POPMAC) and the conference of the North American British Music Studies Association (NABMSA). He has had book chapters published By Oxford University Press and Ad Parnassum Music Studies, and has written reviews and articles for The Musical Times, Music and Letters, and Musica Judaica.

Outside the realms of academia, he is an active performer and composer, specialising particularly in Jewish classical music. He has performed at many of London's principal concert venues, including the South Bank Centre and Westminster Abbey, as well as appearing on the BBC and touring internationally. Within Regent’s University he is responsible for the university’s Music Society and Choir, and has worked on singing with the students of the Regent's theatre programme.

Qualifications

• PhD, Music, Royal Holloway (UL), 2010
• InSTIL (Certificate in Skills of Teaching to Inspire Learning – postgraduate teaching qualification), Royal Hollloway, 2008
• MMus, Music, King's College London, 2005
• PG Diploma, Conducting/Composition, Trinity College of Music, 2001
• BA, Classics, University College, Oxford, 2000

Relevant Past Employment

• 2006 – current, Director of Music, Belsize Square Synagogue
• 2010 – current, Conductor, Royal Free Music Society
• 2003 – current, Musical Director, The Zemel Choir
• 2001 – current, Conductor, The Wallace Ensemble
• 2004 – 2012, Conductor, Rushmoor Choir
• 2011 – 2013 Senior Associate Teacher, Music Department, Bristol University
• 2007 – 2012, Visiting Lecturer, Tutorial and Marking Assistant, Royal Holloway
• 2011, Research Assistant, Film Fitting and Silent Film Music Project, Royal Holloway, UL

• Wolf, B. (2020), 'Music as Mirror: Reflections of Biography and Identity in the Music of Louis Lewandowski', book chapter in Jewishness, Jewish Identity and Music Culture in 19th-Century Europe (Ad Parnassum Studies)
• Wolf, B. (2018), book chapter in 'The British Symphony Orchestra and the Arts Council of Great Britain: Examining the Orchestra in its Economic and Institutional Environments', book chapter in Tina Ramnarine (ed), Global Perspectives on Orchestras: Collective Creativity and Social Agency (Oxford University Press)
• Wolf, B. (2013), ‘The SPNM 1943 – 1975: a retrospective’, published in The Musical Times 154/1925 (Winter 2013), 47 – 66

Reviews

• Wolf, B. (2023). Review of Jason Whittaker, Jerusalem: Blake, Parry, and the Fight for Englishness, Musica Judaica
• Wolf, B. (2020). Review of Marianna Ritchey, Composing Capital, Classical Music in the Neoliberal Era, published in Music and Letters 101/2
• Wolf, B. (2007). Review of Christopher Fifield, Ibbs and Tillett: The Rise and Fall of a Musical Empire, published in Music and Letters 88/1, 161-163.

Other outputs (compositions):

• Armistice (2018): World War One Oratorio, recorded and released in 2019/2020
• Orchestral: L'Chaim for piano and orchestra (2003, revised 2015); Etz Chayim (Tree of Life) Cello Concerto, commissioned for 70th anniversary of Belsize Square Synagogue (2009).
• ‘Cocaine Overture’ and ‘Pictures from Pallant’ for the Chichester Festival 2013 and 2014
• Close Harmony arrangements (Male Voice and SATB), including arrangements of Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi and Yemenite melodies
• Jewish Choral: various. Most recently, ViennAdon Olam (2023) and T'filat Adonai (2023)
• Ancient Greek Settings: Song of Demodocus, Ekon Festival of Greek Music (2009); Siren Song (commissioned 2007)
• Incidental Music: Canaries Sometimes Sing (King's Head, Islington, 2003); Goblin Market (Southwark Playhouse 2005)

• Music and society
• Music in twentieth-century Britain
• Music and politics
• Music and identity
• Jewish music

• Liberal Arts Capstone (undergraduate dissertation)

• (2016) Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)

• Regent's University London: Development and Delivery of Music Courses: Music Appreciation, Contemporary Music in London, Religion and the Arts, History of Rock & Roll, Music and Politics in the Twentieth Century
• Regent's University London: Deliver and development of Foundation modules: Liberal Arts and Media Core Module (2023), Foundation Seminar, Introduction to Humanities, Arts Appreciation
• Theatre and Acting: delivery of voice module focussed on solo and ensemble singing
• Bristol University: Development and Delivery of first-year History of Music Course; Development and Delivery of split-level (second/third-year undergraduate) courses (Intersections of Elite and Popular Music 1850 – 1920; Promoting the Avant-Garde 1930 – 1980); First-Year Undergraduate Tutorials
• Royal Holloway: Development and Delivery of first-year History of Music course; Development and Delivery of first-year course (Introduction to Historical Musicology)