Choir Director
Piano
In addition to being a pianist, organist, and conductor, Benjamin has a passion for worship, the ministry of God's Word, and Christian discipleship. Currenlty the Music Director of Evangelical Presbyterian Church (PCA), Newark, Delaware, he was most recently from Grace Church in Hartford, CT, where he served as Youth Pastor and Worship Director. Benjamin is joined by his wife Marji and their two boys Karsten and Jonathan. He is also an avid sports fan (Phillies, Flyers, Eagles) and loves to play Ultimate Frisbee.
Benjamin was born and raised in Dipper Harbour, New Brunswick, Canada, a small fishing village on the Bay of Fundy. At an early age he studied piano with his grandmother Juanita Spragg and then finished the Associate Diploma with the Royal Conservatory of Music under the tutelage of Carol O'Neil. While studying with Samuel Hsu at Philadelphia Biblical University, he completed Bachelor Degrees in Bible and piano performance. While he was at PBU, he studied conducting with Paul Jones, organ with Robert Carwithen and viola with Xiao-Fu Zhou. Benjamin has a Masters and Professional Studies Degrees in piano performance from Manhattan School of Music where he studied with Nina Svetlanova. He is currently a doctoral student at the University of Maryland in piano performance as a student of Bradford Gowen.
This past season he has collaborated with such artists as violinist, Anthea Kreston, cellist, Kangho Lee. He has recently been seen in performances in Hartford, New York, Rochester, College Park and at the Karamoor Festival. He was formally on staff at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford as collaborative pianist and assisting in the conducting classes of Christopher Zimmerman. He is also a faculty member at the Csehy Summer School of Music where he met Marji.