Benjamin is a very normal twelve year old, who just happens to love playing the harp. His wish is to become a professional performer but at this age he is just happy to be able to perform at charity events or events where he can raise money for charity.

Benjamin started to play the harp when he was 4½ years old and his first public performance took place on 2 November 2001 in a fund-raising concert hosted by the Welsh Flute Trio.

Since then Benjamin has performed in over 125 events across the UK, from Swansea to Edinburgh and helped to raise over £100,000 for organisations including Bobath, The Sparkle Appeal, The Friends of Malawi, Amnesty International, Drug Aid, The Tsunami Earthquake Appeal, Ty Hafen, Guide Dogs for the Blind, Macmillan Cancer Relief, Velindre Hospital, St. Peter’s Hospice and many smaller groups. Some of these events are detailed on the Events Page.

He has played venues throughout Wales but most of his concerts take place here in South East Wales but he often gets asked to travel further afield and has played to audiences in Avon, Gloucester, Somerset, Hampshire, Yorkshire and Scotland.

In 2004 he was invited to enter the 1st International Lever Harp Competition in Nantes, France, where he came second in the "Espoir" class which was open to Harpist 18 years old and younger. This was some achievement considering it took place two weeks before his eighth birthday. The other finalists were 18 year old full time music students! Click here for further details.

In 2005 he took part in The Advanced Pedal Harp and Advanced Non Pedal Harp events at the 103rd Bristol Festival of Music, The Under 12 solo harp competition at the Urdd Eisteddfod and The Under 25 Solo Instrument Class at the Abergavenny Eisteddfod winning first prize in each event.

His performance at the Urdd, which took place at the Wales Millennium Centre, was televised and resulted in invitations to make two further TV recordings for Carolau Llangollen 2005 and Noson Lawen (broadcast 1 April 2006).

Of his many concerts in 2005 the most moving was his acclaimed performance of the Handel Harp Concerto with the Welsh Sinfonia at St Mary’s Priory, Abergavenny which raised over £3,000 for the Tsunami Earthquake Appeal. Click here for further details

2006 is another busy year which has already seen Benjamin taking part in the National Holocaust Memorial Day Concert at which he meet the Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Archbishop of Wales and performing in concerts and events for Bobath and The British Heart Foundation. In April Benjamin went to the Edinburgh International Harp Festival, a fantastic non competitive festival, where he took part in a Jazz course with Park Stickney, after a few days rest it was off to Caernarfon for the Wales International Harp Festival where he won the Under 13 competition and performed a duet with Deborah Henson-Conant.

Later in April Benjamin took part in a couple of charity concerts but May will be a quiet month as he works on new repertoire and the Urdd. He then has a number of events planned for later in the year. Please see the Events page for details

Benjamin has been supporting the BBC Children in Need Appeal since 2001 and has raised over £6,000 by staging three music events, two of which were highlighted on BBC TV and selling copies of his debut CD single Ben Jamming which is in aid of the appeal and which was launched at Pudsey in the Park 2003 when Benjamin was interviewed live on BBC TV with Bryn Terfel. The CD which has received national and local radio broadcasts, costs just £4.99 Click here for further details

As well as playing the harp, Benjamin also plays the piano, his great love being jazz & blues. He has piano lessons in school and Improvisation Lessons with Cardiff Jazz musician Julian Martin. Benjamin hopes that as time goes on, he will be be able to play more Jazz & Blues on the harp.

Benjamin is often asked "How much practice do you do?"

Benjamin normally does no more than play through his pieces once a day, depending on how many he has on the go (normally 9 or 10) and how many are new this should take him between 1/2 to 1 hour. However he may spend a bit longer working on difficult pieces in the run up to a concert or competition.

Mum & Dad are often asked "How do you get him to practice every day"

Because Benjamin loves performing and understands that he has to "practice" regularly to enable him to learn new pieces and keep his existing repertoire up to scratch and he just gets on and does it.

Benjamin has a wide range of interest outside music. He loves swimming, gardening and reading. He is also mad about Star Wars, F1 racing, Lego, Lord of the Rings and more recently his Game Boy (especially if the games are Star Wars, Lord of the Rings or motor racing!).