Benjamin Verdery (born 1955) is an American classical guitarist, composer and teacher.Summerfield, Maurice J. The Classical Guitar: Its Evolution and Its Players Since 1800, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK: Ashley Mark Publishing, 1991. Retrieved November 1, 2021.Crowe, Julia. "Dynamic Duo," Guitar Player, May 2005, p. 66–70.Small, Mark. "Guitarist/Composer/Teacher Benjamin Verdery Has Taken the Eclectic Road," Acoustic Guitar, July/August 2020, p. 34–6. Retrieved November 3, 2021. Verdery has performed at venues including Carnegie Hall, Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Opera, and Wigmore Hall (London).Saulter, Jerry. "No Boundaries: Benjamin Verdery," 20th Century Guitar, September 2002, p. 31–3.Kilvington, Chris. "Benjamin Verdery," Classical Guitar, June 1985.Crowe, Julia. "Ben Verdery and Andy Summers," Classical Guitar, May 2005, p. 56–7. He has played and recorded with a wide range of classical and other musicians, including guitarists William Coulter, Leo Kottke, Paco Peña, Andy Summers and John Williams, vocalist Hermann Prey, composer Anthony Newman, and his wife, flutist Rie Schmidt.Cmiel, Scott. "No Boundaries," Acoustic Guitar, May 2002.Magnussen, Paul. "Benjamin Verdery," Classical Guitar, July 2002, p. 11–17.Ferguson, Jim. "Benjamin Verdery," Guitar Player, August 1984, p. 32–7.Tommasini, Anthony. "The Schubertiade Ends With Song and Piano," The New York Times, February 22, 1996, p. C14. Retrieved November 3, 2021.Ericson, Raymond. "Debuts in Review," The New York Times, December 14, 1980. Retrieved November 5, 2021. New York Times classical music critic Allan Kozinn described Verdery as "one of the guitar’s grand individualists" and "an iconoclastic player," known as much for his devotion to new music and transcriptions of Jimi Hendrix songs as for inventive interpretations of Bach.Kozinn, Allan. "Bach’s Music as a Blank Canvas for Guitarists," The New York Times, February 2, 2010. Retrieved November 3, 2021.Kozinn, Allan. "The Rare and the Hendrix at Mannes College's New York Guitar Seminar," The New York Times, July 7, 2006. Retrieved November 3, 2021.Kozinn, Allan. "Bach, Celebrated With Strings," The New York Times, September 8, 2009. Retrieved November 3, 2021. As of 2021, Verdery had released 19 albums and been featured on several others.Kosman, Joshua. "Ben Verdery, 'Scenes from Ellis Island,'" San Francisco Chronicle, February 26, 2020. Retrieved November 3, 2021.Donahue, Thomas (ed.). Benjamin Verdery: A Montage of a Classical Guitarist, Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books/ Rowman and Littlefield, 2018. Retrieved November 3, 2021. He has taught at the Yale School of Music since 1985.Yale School of Music. Benjamin Verdery, People. Retrieved November 1, 2021.
Early life and education Benjamin Verdery was born in 1955 in Danbury, Connecticut, to John Duane Verdery, an Episcopalian minister and headmaster of the Wooster School, and Suzanne Aldrich Verdery.Braider, Jackson N. "Benjamin Verdery," Classical Guitar, May/June 1984, p. 14–23.The New York Times. "Rev. John D. Verdery," July 18, 1985, p. A20. Retrieved November 4, 2021. He became interested in music after hearing The Beatles' "I Saw Her Standing There" in 1963.Magnussen, Paul. "Benjamin Verdery," Guitar International, December 1984, p. 7–10.
In his senior year at Wooster School, Verdery began formal lessons with classical guitarist Phillip De Fremery.Chapin, Gary Parker. "Riding the Wind," Acoustic Guitar, September/October 1992. After learning four pieces in order to audition for conservatory, he was accepted at SUNY Purchase in 1974, where he studied with composer-organist Anthony Newman and guitarist-composer Frederic Hand, and earned the school's first BFA in guitar in 1978. During that time, he also took master classes with the classical guitarist-composers Leo Brouwer and Alirio Díaz; since then he has studied with pianist-composer Seymour Bernstein. While at SUNY, Verdery met flutist Rie Schmidt (who later co-founded Flute Force); together they formed the Schmidt/Verdery Duo and married in 1979. Since debuting in New York City at Merkin Hall in 1980, they have released two albums and continue to perform.Kerstens, Tom. "Benjamin Verdery, Rie Schmidt," Classical Guitar, April 1987.Holland, Bernard. "Flute and Guitar Compositions of the 1980s," The New York Times, April 17, 1989. Retrieved November 3, 2021.
Music Early in his career, Verdery was recognized in magazines such as Classical Guitar, Guitar Player and Billboard among "a new breed of classical guitarists"Small, Mark. "The Benjamin Verdery Experience," Guitar Extra!, Fall 1991, p. 43–7. and "advocates of new guitar music"Billboard. "Ride the Wind Horse: American Guitar Music," February 9, 1991. stretching the instrument through inventive transcriptions, new compositions, and diverse influences, performance contexts and programs.Cooper, Colin. "Benjamin Verdery," Classical Guitar, March 1985, p. 13–6. In Verdery's case, writers cited an open-mindedness and lack of affectation that allowed him to synthesize tonal nuances, techniques and expressive sensibilities from rock, blues, jazz and other influences, including Aretha Franklin, Jimi Hendrix, Dinu Lipatti, Julian Bream, David Oistrakh, Bill Connors, John Williams, John McLaughlin, Miles Davis, and others.Siegel, Micki K. "Guitarist Verdery: from rock to Bach," Us, June 18, 1984, p. 13.
While the earliest part of Verdery's career centered on the classical repertoire, by the late-1980s he looked towards more contemporary material, mixing Anthony Newman, Lou Harrison and Steve Reich compositions alongside Jimi Hendrix tunes in recitals, which stood him apart from most classical guitarists. In the 2000s, he continued to integrate old, new and more diverse works into his programs, blurring boundaries between genres.Taylor, Lindis. "Master guitarist blurs boundaries," The Dominion Post (Wellington), September 19, 2005.Mallett, Christopher. "Benjamin Verdery: Playing and Composing Outside the Box," Classical Guitar, Summer 2016, p. 36–9. Retrieved November 3, 2021. In 2020, Acoustic Guitars Mark Small wrote, "Among the virtuosi of the Baby Boomer generation, it's not hard to make a case that Verdery has explored the most diverse terrain," noting a recorded repertoire that includes Bach, Strauss and Mozart, adventurous contemporary classical composers (including himself), arrangements of Prince, traditional folk tunes and hymns, Eastern influences and "all manner of guitars."
Performing Verdery has performed internationally, at venues including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Concertgebouw, the Metropolitan Opera, Wigmore Hall, and guitar festivals around the world.Martin, John. "Conversation with Benjamin Verdery," Guitart International, July/September 2005, p. 26–33.92Y. Benjamin Verdery, Instructors. Retrieved November 4, 2021. He has played with guitarists William Coulter, Frederic Hand, Leo Kottke, Paco Peña, Nano Stern and John Williams, and vocalist Jessye Norman, among others. In 1996, Verdery accompanied the German baritone Hermann Prey in a performance of Schubert's "Fruhlingsglaube" described in the New York Times as bringing "an affecting sweetness and intimacy to [the] gently lyrical music." In 2005, Verdery and Andy Summers debuted Ingram Marshall's "Dark Florescence Variations for Two Guitars and Orchestra" at Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra; Classical Guitar wrote that the performance's modern sensibility "exult[ed] in a dazzling interplay" between classical and electric guitars and orchestra.
Throughout his career, Verdery's recitals have been noted for lyricism, invention, complexity, dynamism and eclecticism.Ardoin, John. "Verdery shines in Majestic concert," The Dallas Morning News, November 22, 1983.Barker, Frank. "Guitar Trio," The Guardian, August 24, 1984.Crain, Mary Beth. "Finger Pickin' Good," LA Weekly, February 17, 2011. Retrieved November 3, 2021. The New York Times review of his 1980 New York debut described his interpretations of Bach as "rhythmically secure and musically precise" with a riveting concentration augmented by "flamboyant gestures." In 1991, Guitar Extra characterized his approach as a "dichotomous marriage of absolute virtuosic bravura and a commanding—and sometimes comedic—stage presence." His later performances have been described as open, democratic and original, freely mixing styles and elements such as altered guitars and digital delay to create new sonic environments.Cmiel, Scott. "All Hail Benjamin Verdery: Festival of New American Music," San Francisco Classical Voice, November 6, 2012.Cooper, Colin. "Ben Verdery," Classical Guitar, November 2010.Woodhouse, Jon. "Benjamin Verdery: Guitarist and Composer," Maui Beat, Thursday, July 17, 2014, p. 3–4.
Composing Verdery has composed works for classical and non-classical guitar for solo and duo performance, guitar quartets, chamber groups and orchestras, for himself and others, including Sérgio and Odair Assad, David Russell, David Tanenbaum, Scott Tennant, and John Williams and John Etheridge.Crowe, Julia. "Ben Verdery," Classical Guitar, September 2006, p. 11–6. After beginning with classical arrangements in the 1980s, he started—without formal training—to compose works for himself, such as the three-movement solo "In Memory," the largely solo and duo pieces comprising his album Some Towns and Cities (1991), "Eleven Etudes," and the Dalai Lama-dedicated "Be Kind All the Time."Cooper, Colin. "Benjamin Verdery: Taking Music to the people," Classical Guitar, May 1994, p. 11–6.Verdery, Benjamin. "What a Journey," Benjamin Verdery: A Montage of a Classical Guitarist, Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books/ Rowman and Littlefield, 2018, p. 68. Retrieved November 4, 2021.
Verdery's compositions for larger guitar ensembles include: "Scenes from Ellis Island" (1999), a version of which (titled "Ellis Island") was written for and recorded by the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet; "Pick and Roll" (for multiple guitars, saxophone, violin and basketball player), which premiered at Santa Cruz Contemporary Festival in 2000; and "Give" (for eight guitars), commissioned by Thomas Offermann and premiered in Rostock, Germany in 2009. He has also written chamber music for his group Ufonia and for a work commissioned by the New Jersey Chamber Music Society, titled "Soul Force" (1996, for guitar, cello, flute and percussion).Kandell, Leslie. "A Collaboration in Keeping King's Dream Alive," The New York Times, January 7, 1996. Retrieved November 3, 2021. The piece's title lifts a frequently used Martin Luther King term, while the score is based on one of his speeches, with the cello loosely imitating the rhythms of his voice and the guitar imitating its pitch. Verdery's compositions and arrangements are published by Alfred Music and Doberman-Yppan (Canada).
Several composers have written for Verdery, including Daniel Asia, Sérgio Assad, Martin Bresnick, Elizabeth Brown, Frederic Hand, Aaron Kernis, Ezra Laderman, Hannah Lash, David Leisner, John Anthony Lennon, Ingram Marshall, Anthony Newman, Roberto Sierra, Jack Vees, and his former student Bryce Dessner, of The National.Assad, Sérgio. "Charisma," Benjamin Verdery: A Montage of a Classical Guitarist, Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books/ Rowman and Littlefield, 2018, p. 1–4. Retrieved November 3, 2021.Lash, Hannah. "For Ben," Benjamin Verdery: A Montage of a Classical Guitarist, Lanham, MD: Hamilton Books/ Rowman and Littlefield, 2018, p. 30–2. Retrieved November 3, 2021.Bambarger, Bradley. "Versatile Virtuoso: Guitarist grooves to the music of Bach and Hendrix," Star-Ledger, December 2008.Robb, Peter. "Chamberfest: Stringing along with Benjamin Verdery, the mayor of Guitartown," Artsfile, July 22, 2019.
Recordings and videos