Florian Benfer

About Florian Benfer

Florian Benfer has established himself as one of the most versatile young choir conductors of his generation. He is the musical director and conductor of the Gustaf Sjökvists Chamber Choir and musical director of the ARTON Ensemble.

Between 2014 and 2019, Florian was musical director and conductor of the German National Youth Choir. After a period of restructuring the ensemble, he formed a chamber choir that brought together 30 to 36 highly talented young singers from all over the country. Within a few years the choir has become one of Germanys most acclaimed ensembles.

​Since 2011 he has been working regularly with the Eric Ericson’s Chamber Choir. With this ensemble he has conducted concerts in almost all Scandinavian countries, Germany and Belgium. 

In addition to these engagements, he has also worked with ensembles including the Swedish Radio Choir, Cappella Amsterdam, SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart, NDR Chor Hamburg, Chor der Bayerischen Rundfunks München, MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig, RIAS Kammerchor, Drottningholm Barockensemble, the Orchestra of Folkoperan Stockholm and the Swedish Wind Ensemble.

He has rehearsed choirs for conductors such as Thomas Dausgaard, Peter Eötvös, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniel Harding, Christopher Hogwood, Louis Langrée, Marek Janowski, Lorin Maazel, Sakari Oramo, Esa-Pekka Salonen and Masaaki Suzuki.

As conductor and singer, Florian has been guest at festivals such as Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Bachfest Leipzig, Festival van Vlaanderen, Taipei International Choral Festival, Baltic Sea Festival, MusikTriennale Köln, Sound of Stockholm, Beijing Modern Music Festival, Soundstreams Festival Toronto, Sueciakonstcuba in Havana among many others.

Education
His musical education began in Leipzig with studies in church music, after which he went on to study choral conducting with Anders Eby and organ with Nils Larsson at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. Further studies in orchestral conducting then took him to the Royal Conservatory in The Hague.
He completed his musical training by participating in master classes with Frieder Bernius, Stefan Parkman, Michael Radulescu, Patrick Russill and Grete Pedersen, and through experience as a singing member of such ensembles as the Stuttgart Chamber Choir, the Lucerne Festival Academy Vocalists 2006 and the World Youth Choir.

Teaching
In addition to his work as a conductor Florian is a sought-after teacher and lecturer. He has been giving Masterclasses for conductors in Austria, Germany and China. Since 2017 he has been serving as guest teacher in choral conducting and ensemble singing at the Central Music Conservatory in Beijing.

Awards
In 2008, Florian Benfer was awarded the Gustaf Sjökvist Scholarship for young choral conductors and in 2010 the scholarship of the Royal Swedish Music Academy Stockholm. In 2012 he received the Eric Ericsons resestipendium. In 2016, Florian Benfer was awarded the prestigious „Norrby medal“, honoring his „outstanding musical accomplishments and his engagement in Swedish choir music“.