Benjamin Narvey

Lutenist Benjamin Narvey is known for his engaging and versatile performances on 16th-, 17th- and 18th-century historical plucked instruments, notably the renaissance and baroque lute, the baroque guitar, as well as Italian, French, German and English theorboes. Born in Montréal, Benjamin studied at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (London) with David Miller, and has refined his understanding of period performance with Nigel North, Paul O’Dette and Hopkinson Smith.

Benjamin can be heard frequently as a solo, chamber and principal orchestral lutenist in international concert venues such as the Opéra de Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Opéra Royal de Versailles, the Teatro Argentina of Rome, the Teatro Real de Madrid, the Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and also at important festivals such as the BBC Proms, London Handel Festival, Aldeburgh Festival, Brighton Early Music Festival, Festival d’Ambronay, Festival de Rocamadour, Festival de Sablé, Festival de la Chaise-Dieu, Festival Radio France Montpellier, Leipzig Bachfest, Festival de Musica Antigua Ubeda y Baeza, FEMAS, Anima Mundi, Valletta International Baroque Festival, and the Vancouver Early Music Festival. He also collaborates regularly with the Haydneum (Hungarian Centre for Early Music) and the Centre de musique baroque de Versailles (CMBV). 

As a soloist Benjamin regularly performs solo lute recitals and lute concerti with orchestra. He is also frequently in demand as a continuist, and has worked with leading ensembles such as Les Accents, Les Ambassadeurs – La Grande Ecurie, La Chapelle Rhénane, Le Concert de la Loge, Le Concert Spirituel, the English Baroque Soloists, Les Folies Françoises, Fuoco e Cenere, Ensemble Il Caravaggio, Ensemble Marguerite Louise, the Monteverdi Choir & Orchestra, Les Ombres, Les Paladins, the Purcell Choir & Orfeo Orchestra and La Symphonie du Marais. 

Benjamin has a wide-ranging discography covering solo, chamber and orchestral repertoire. His first solo disc, Psyché: Weiss and the French School (Gamut Music USA) was released at the Boston Early Music Festival in June 2017, and a recent collaboration with Jérôme Correas has resulted in a recording of some of Vivaldi’s lute music, which was released on the B Records label. He has been featured as a continuist on numerous other recordings for labels such as Alpha, En Phases, Erato, Klarthe, Naïve Records, Château de Versailles Spectacles, and Warner Classics. 

He is the Lute Professor at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Départemental de Pantin, and he has served as a jury member for the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Paris, the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Versailles, and also for the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. He was a French Baroque Tutor at both Worcester and Pembroke colleges (University of Oxford, 2006–2008), and is currently a thesis director at the Haute École de Musique de Genève.