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Benjamin Kwasi Burrell
Represented By
Sam Day
Benjamin Kwasi Burrell | Composer | Musical Director | Orchestrator & Arranger
Born and raised in south-east London, Benjamin Kwasi Burrell is a composer, orchestrator, arranger and musical director. He studied saxophone and piano before training in jazz piano at Trinity College of Music, then gained a Masters in Scoring for Film, Television & Video Games from Berklee College of Music. He won a 2019 Black British Theatre Award in recognition of his work as musical director of Small Island (National Theatre).
Benjamin Kwasi Burrell | Composer | Musical Director | Orchestrator & Arranger
Born and raised in south-east London, Benjamin Kwasi Burrell is a composer, orchestrator, arranger and musical director. He studied saxophone and piano before training in jazz piano at Trinity College of Music, then gained a Masters in Scoring for Film, Television & Video Games from Berklee College of Music. He won a 2019 Black British Theatre Award in recognition of his work as musical director of Small Island (National Theatre).
Benjamin is composer for Blues For An Alabama Sky, opening at the National Theatre in September. His music on James Graham’s new play Best of Enemies will transfer to the West End this autumn, and in 2023 Ben will compose on The Motive & The Cue, written by Jack Thorne and directed by Sam Mendes for the National Theatre. Ben is assistant musical director on Get Up, Stand Up: The Bob Marley Musical at the Lyric Theatre.
Further composition for stage includes The National Theatre’s A Taste of Honey (UK Tour & Trafalgar Studios); Small Island (National Theatre); Beyond Beethoven 9 (National Youth Orchestra, Southbank Centre).
On screen, Benjamin is on the Netflix composer internship for Top Boy. He composed the score for horror feature Shortcut (Mad Rocket Entertainment).
Live on stage, Benjamin was music director for Coventry Moves, a city-wide event this summer as part of Coventry City of Culture 2021. He is MD of the House and Garage Orchestra. He has performed, composed and arranged for bands & artists including Zara McFarlane, Cape Verdean’s Carmen Souza, Jazz Jamaica, the Jazz Jamaica All Stars Big Band, New Civilization Orchestra, Chineke! Junior Orchestra and the Tomorrow’s Warriors Jazz Orchestra. As a performer he has worked with top jazz talent including Garry Crosby MBE, Denys Baptiste, Rod Youngs, Mark Kavuma, Nubya Garcia, Peter Edwards, and Nathaniel Facey.
Credits as assistant musical director include: Memphis (Shaftesbury Theatre); One Love (Birmingham Rep); Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (Wyndam’s Theatre); and A Clockwork Orange (Theatre Royal Stratford East).