Distinguished Leadership
updated
6/8/11
DIRECTOR'S BIOS
Martín Benvenuto,
Artistic Director, Walnut Creek 3 & 4 and
Honors Ensemble
Dr.
Martín Benvenuto
has established
himself as one of the leading
choir conductors in the San
Francisco Bay Area. A native of
Buenos Aires, Argentina, he has
been Artistic Director for
WomenSing (WS) since 2002.
Active as a clinician, panelist,
and guest conductor, Benvenuto
is Artistic Director for the
Peninsula Women’s Chorus (PWC),
has served on the faculty of the
Piedmont East Bay Children’s
Choir for eight years, and has
recently been appointed as
Artistic Director for the Contra
Costa Children’s Chorus.
Recognized for
his exacting technique,
compelling presence, and a
passion for drawing the finest
choral tone, Benvenuto’s
repertoire is extensive,
including great landmarks of the
treble repertoire as well as
works by living composers.
His choirs are dedicated
to commissioning new works from
leading composers such as Libby
Larsen, Chen Yi, Stacy Garrop,
Charles Griffin, Cristián Grases,
Brian Holmes, and David Conte.
His choirs have earned high
marks in international
competitions in Argentina, South
Africa, Canada, Hungary, and
Spain. Of particular note are
the Third Prize awarded to the
PWC at the 2006 Béla Bártok
International Choir Competition,
one of the most competitive and
prestigious in the European
circuit, and the 2010 Chorus
America/ASCAP Alice Parker award,
which recognized WS for
programming recently- composed
music that expanded the mission
of the chorus and challenged the
chorus’s audience in new ways.
Benvenuto highly values artistic
collaborations: his choirs have
collaborated with Veljo Tormis,
Joseph Jennings, Karmina Silec,
Charles Bruffy, California
Shakespeare Theater, the San
Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, and
the Golden Gate Men’s Chorus.
Benvenuto has prepared choirs
for organizations such as the
San Francisco Opera, the Oakland
East Bay Symphony, the Redwood
Symphony, and the Kronos
Quartet, and for works such as
Bach’s
St Matthew Passion,
Monteverdi’s
Vespers,
Britten’s
St. Nicholas,
Mahler’s
Third Symphony,
Holst’s
The Planets,
Stravinsky’s
Mass,
and Orff’s
Carmina Burana.
An accomplished singer as well,
Benvenuto has appeared as a
tenor soloist in Haydn’s
Lord Nelson Mass,
Vivaldi’s
Magnificat,
Mozart’s
Requiem,
Bach’s
Cantata BWV 61,
Beethoven’s
Mass in C,
Ramirez’s
Misa Criolla,
and others. As a member of the
Westminster Symphonic Choir, he
sang with the New York
Philharmonic, Philadelphia
Orchestra and Los Angeles
Philharmonic under the batons of
Kurt Masur, Wolfgang Sawallisch,
Helmuth Rilling, Esa-Pekka
Salonen and Joseph Flummerfelt.
Benvenuto holds a D.M.A. in
choral conducting from Boston
University, where he studied
with Ann Howard Jones and the
late Robert Shaw. He earned his
master’s degree from Westminster
Choir College, majoring both in
Choral Conducting and Voice
Performance and Pedagogy,
studying under Joseph
Flummerfelt, Elem Eley and Julia
Kemp. His undergraduate degrees
in choral conducting and
composition are from the
Universidad Católica Argentina.
TBA, Artistic Director, Walnut Creek
Levels 1 & 2, San Ramon Level 1
and Ensemble
2011-2012 Board of Directors
Emily Fernandez-Arnold
Linda Berti
Sandy Warner
Advisory Board
Karen Anderson
Theo Atkinson
Angene Feves
Dr. Dan Hoggatt
Iris Lamanna
Bob Keagy
Dr. Spencer Larsen
Sonja Nesbett Maund
Gwen Regalia
Deborah Roessler
Mary Stanley
Olivia Stapp
Jim & Chau Yoder
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