Paul Beniston

Key details:

Department:
Wind, Brass & Percussion
Role:
Trumpet

Paul Beniston was born in Chatham in 1966, and still lives there. Having started to play the cornet in Gillingham Salvation Army Brass Band, he switched to the trumpet when he was 10, learning at Kent Junior Music School (now Kent Centre for Young Instrumentalists). Later he was a member of both the Kent County Youth Orchestra and the European Community Youth Orchestra.

After studying music at Bristol University and the Royal College of Music, in 1988 Paul became Joint Principal Trumpet at English National Opera, and in 1994 joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Principal Trumpet, with which he has also appeared as soloist at the Royal Festival Hall.

In 1999 and 2000 he was the trumpet soloist in Raymond Gubbay’s Glory of Christmas concerts at the Barbican, Royal Albert Hall, Cardiff, Belfast and Birmingham.

Paul is also a member of London Brass (since 1996) (formerly the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble), and is a professor at the Royal College of Music (since 1995), and the Guildhall School of Music & Drama (since 1999).