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 on Grenfell: in the words of the survivors at the National Theatre; Drew McOnie’s The Nutcracker; and Arkham, a new immersive London production from the Batman universe. His work on The Motive & The Cue will transfer to the Noel Coward Theatre in December.

Further composition for stage includes Best of Enemies (Young Vic & Noel Coward Theatre); Blues For An Alabama Sky, Small Island (National Theatre); A Taste of Honey (UK Tour & Trafalgar Studios); Beyond Beethoven 9 (National Youth Orchestra, Southbank Centre).

On screen, Benjamin is the composer on Three Little Birds (ITV). He composed the score for horror feature Shortcut (Mad Rocket Entertainment).

Credits as musical supervisor include Mandela (Young Vic).

Live on stage, Benjamin was music director for Coventry Moves 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: Get Up, Stand Up (Lyric Theatre); 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).