Biography
Learn more about Benjamin
Korean-American bass-baritone Benjamin Ferriby is a recipient of the Margot Fassler Prize in the Performance of Sacred Music (Yale University, 2022). He began playing piano by ear at the age of three, less than a year after he had arrived in the United States from Ulsan, South Korea, and enrolled in private study shortly thereafter. This early affinity for music was nurtured throughout his time at the Saint Thomas Choir School in New York, NY, where he enrolled at the age of nine. It was during this time that he began to foster a deep admiration for vocal repertoire, performing daily with the internationally renowned Saint Thomas Choir of Men and Boys, then under the music direction of John Scott, at Saint Thomas Church, Fifth Avenue.
Benjamin spent the 2024–25 season in the United Kingdom, where he sang with the Choir of Canterbury Cathedral. While a resident of the cathedral precincts, he sang six services per week, performed in several concerts (Handel Messiah, HWV 56 and Mozart Requiem, K. 626), and could be heard during BBC Radio 3 (400th Anniversary of Orlando Gibbons' Death) and BBC Radio 4 (Easter Sunday) broadcasts. He also presented a solo recital (Barber Dover Beach, Op. 3, among other selections) during Refugee Week, a week-long event series organized by Canterbury Cathedral, The Social Justice Network, and the Kent Refugee Action Network (KRAN).
Previous seasons have included performances in notable domestic and international venues under the baton of esteemed conductors such as Marguerite Brooks, Gabriel Crouch, Jeffrey Douma, Matthew Halls, David Hill, Ann Howard Jones, Nic McGegan, James O'Donnell, Hans-Christoph Rademann, Kathy Romey, John Scott, Masaaki Suzuki, and André Thomas, among others.
Benjamin holds an MM from Yale University and a BM from DePauw University. His discography includes Gabriel Jackson: Choral Works (Resonus); Weir: In the Land of Uz; Beach: The Canticle of the Sun (Hyperion); Fauré: Requiem, Ave Verum Corpus, Messe Basse, Tantum Ergo, Cantique de Jean Racine (STR to Resonus); Duruflé: Requiem; Howells: Requiem; Vaughan Williams: Valient for Truth (STR to Resonus); and O Sing Unto the Lord: Sacred Music of Henry Purcell (STR to Resonus).
