Benjamin Till

Benjamin Till (born 8 August 1974) is a multi-award-winning English composer, director and film maker.

Early years

Till was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, and spent much of his childhood in the Northamptonshire town of Higham Ferrers. He attended the Northamptonshire Music School (NMPAT) and sang in the Northamptonshire County Youth Choir.

Education

He studied music and composition at The University of York, then trained on the directing course at London's Mountview Theatre School.

Composing

The Pepys Motet

In 2010, St. Olave's Church, where Samuel Pepys is buried, commissioned Till to write a 40-part motet to mark the 350th anniversary of Pepys' beginning to write his diary. Four of the six movements were performed live in November 2010 at St. Olave's. The fourth movement, The Great Fire, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3's In Tune programme, whilst The Pepys Motet[1] was re-scored for 20 voices and recorded and released by Hind Style Records in 2016.

The London Requiem

Completed in 2012, The London Requiem is a setting of gravestone inscriptions which Till found in cemeteries across London. This ten movement work is scored for string orchestra, string quartet, four percussionists and three keyboard players, alongside full SATB choir and soloists. The work was featured on The Space, a pilot BBC project. Ten short films were created for each of the movements, and subsequently they broadcast a live performance of the full piece from Abney Park Cemetery. The London Requiem was recorded in 2012 featuring the Balanescu Quartet and soloists including Maddy Prior, Matt Lucas, Tanita Tikaram and Barbara Windsor.

Oranges and Lemons

In early 2009, Till recorded all the bells mentioned in the nursery rhyme, "Oranges and Lemons" (two hundred bells in seventeen London churches), and wrote a piece of music to feature them all playing in harmony, alongside a choir of people who live or work in one of the areas around the churches. This twelve-minute composition, which included a staggering 4000 individual bell strikes was featured on BBC Radio 3's In Tune and BBC Radio 4's Today Programme,[2] alongside in depth coverage by BBC London,[3][4][5] who sponsored the piece with Arts Council England. The piece received its premiere performance on 11 July 2009 at St. Mary le Bow Church, London.

Benjamin Till's various compositions also include some liturgical Jewish works for a cappella male vocal ensemble, commissioned by Mosaic Voices, the resident choir at the New West End Synagogue, of which he is a member.

Theatre work

Brass

In 2014, Till was commissioned by the National Youth Music Theatre to create a new musical to commemorate the centenary of the First World War. Brass has book, music and lyrics by Till, with additional lyrics by Sir Arnold Wesker and Nathan Taylor. The show premiered in August 2014 at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall and tells the story of a group of men from a Leeds-based brass band who sign up to fight as part of the Leeds Pals battalion, and their women folk who decide to learn the instruments the men have left behind in the hope of playing triumphantly for them on their return from war.

The show, directed by Sara Kestelman and choreographed by Matt Flint went on to win Best Musical at the UK Theatre Awards 2014, and a cast recording was released the following year. Brass was later revived by the NYMT in a new production at the Hackney Empire in August 2016, directed by Hannah Chissick, and was met with rave reviews, especially from Theatre Critic and Associate Editor of The Stage Mark Shenton who said the show was a "magnificent miracle of a musical...with epic sweep and originality."

From 31 October to 24 November 2018, the show received its professional premiere in a new production at the Union Theatre, directed by Sasha Regan, the theatre's founder and artistic director. The production received a full complement of four and five star reviews.[6] Michael Arditti in the Sunday Express wrote "Benjamin Till's rich, melodious score, its influences, ranging from Marie Lloyd to Vaughan Williams, powerfully conveys the fervour, horror and heartbreak both in the trenches and at home". The production was nominated for five Offies. Brass is published by Rodgers and Hammerstein Theatricals.[7]

Em

In 2017, Till wrote the musical Em, set in Liverpool in 1965, which tells the story of a woman who is trying to keep a baby born out of wedlock, which the authorities want to take away from her. The musical was performed by Central School of Speech and Drama, and subsequently released as a cast album.

Other theatre

In 1997, Till was approached by playwright Sir Arnold Wesker to collaborate with him on a one-woman musical play that he had written in 1990. The piece was called Letter to a Daughter, and the UK premiere opened at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh on Till's birthday, 8 August 1998.

Film and television

Casting

From 2004 to 2006, Till worked as a casting assistant to casting director Shaheen Baig, and worked on such films as Control, Notes on a Scandal, Brick Lane and 28 Weeks Later, the last of which he also worked on closely with the two young leads, Imogen Poots and Mackintosh Muggleton.

BBC films

In early 2005, he submitted a pitch to BBC London News, who were looking for people to make a two-minute short film on the subject of "Untold London." The pitch was for a musical film featuring the different communities who use and enjoy Hampstead Heath. Till was one of ten directors chosen to make their films,[8] and Hampstead Heath: The Musical was born. The film was nominated for a Royal Television Society award.[8]

BBC producer Penny Wrout then commissioned him to make a three-minute musical film for the Children in Need telethon,[8] showcasing the bizarre and wacky ways that people were raising money for the popular charity: the film was shown twice during the telethon in November that year.

The Busker Symphony

In 2006, Till made four short films for Channel 4's Three-Minute Wonder season. The project was called The Busker Symphony, and a four-movement piece he composed was performed by buskers past and present at various locations around London. Each film featured one movement from the Symphony, variously entitled Andante, Adagio, Scherzo and Finalé: the films were broadcast in April 2006.

A1: The Road Musical

In April 2008, Till started work on his largest-scale project to date, A1: the Road Musical, again for Channel 4. The half-hour film was produced by Endemol, and followed a lorry driver's journey up the A1, from London to Edinburgh, during which he met various people along the way, who all tell their stories either in song, or set to a specially composed soundtrack.

The film starts with Londoners singing their thoughts while stuck in city traffic, then further up the road a young Polish man is introduced: he is deliberating whether or not to leave England and return to Poland. We then meet a lady who was involved in a severe car accident and the mysterious stranger who helped her, a choir of ex-miners lamenting the demise of the coal industry, a young man who lost his brother in an accident on the A1, two motorbikers railing at the government red tape that threatens to stifle people's independence and a Berwick-upon-Tweed resident who is campaigning to have the Scottish border redrawn to make his town part of Scotland, where he feels it rightly belongs.

The film was broadcast on 29 August 2008, and became the fourth most-praised programme aired on Channel 4 that month, based on telephone calls to the station to congratulate the makers.[9]

Coventry Market: The Musical

On 4 November 2008, BBC Coventry and Warwickshire screened the premiere of Coventry Market: The Musical,[10] a film made by Till to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the town's indoor market. Drawing on the whole community surrounding the market, and those who work in it or patronise it, the film spawned a large multi-platform project, with many radio hours dedicated to its creation, and the stories of some of those featured in it. In addition, there were associated online blogs[11] and news documentaries shown in the region.

Tyne & Wear Metro: The Musical

On 24 March 2011, BBC Look North, premiered Till's Metro: The Musical.[12] The work celebrated 30 years of the Tyne and Wear Metro carrying the North-Eastern community from the busy epicentre of Monument to the sunny coast of Tynemouth, or the bustling runways of Newcastle Airport. It featured a cast of 180 - all of whom have worked or been passengers on the network since 1980 - sharing their stories.

Our Gay Wedding: The Musical (2014)

On 29 March 2014, Till married his long-term partner Nathan Taylor, in the process becoming one of the first same-sex couples to get married in the UK. They were married in a musical, which was commissioned by Channel 4 and broadcast two days after the wedding itself. The multi-award-winning film received wide praise. Ed Power, writing in The Daily Telegraph said it was "more powerful than anything all the romcom writers in the world could have put together".[13]

The Guardian's Tim Dowling wrote "When I say I cried I cried all the way through [...] an hour of unbridled joy, an inventive and wholly appropriate way to celebrate the advent of equal marriage [...] better than perfect, it was fabulous."[14] In Metro, Simon Swift reviewed it as "The wedding that was better than Kate and Will's [...] a heartwarming, uplifting, tear-jerking celebration of gay marriage [...] Best. Wedding. Ever."

Awards
YearAssociationCategoryWorkResult
2009Grierson AwardBest NewcomerA1: The Road MusicalNominated
2009SONY AwardsThe Community AwardCoventry Market: the MusicalNominated
2011Prix de CircomSocial Interaction and Viewer SupportA Symphony for YorkshireWinner
2011RTS AwardsTeam of the YearA Symphony for YorkshireWinner
2011RTS AwardsMusicA Symphony for YorkshireWinner
2011RTS AwardsCommunityA Symphony for YorkshireWinner
2011RTS AwardsSocial MediaA Symphony for YorkshireNominated
2011RTS AwardsDrama or EntertainmentA Symphony for YorkshireNominated
2014UK Theatre AwardsBest Musical ProductionBrassWinner
2014Prix ItaliaTV Performing ArtsOur Gay Wedding: The MusicalWinner
2014Broadcast AwardBest Music ProgrammeOur Gay Wedding: The MusicalNominated
2014Grierson AwardsBest Entertaining DocumentaryOur Gay Wedding: The MusicalWinner
2014Guardian TV AwardTV Moment of the YearOur Gay Wedding: The MusicalNominated
2014Guardian TV AwardMost Innovative TV ProgrammeOur Gay Wedding: The MusicalNominated
2015BAFTABest Special FactualOur Gay Wedding: The MusicalNominated
2015Rose D'OrBest Arts ProgrammeOur Gay Wedding: The MusicalWinner
2015RTS AwardBest ArtsOur Gay Wedding: The MusicalNominated
2016West End Wilma AwardMost Underrated West End ShowBeyond the FenceNominated
2019 Robinson International Short Film Competition Best Short Film 100 Faces Gold Prize

Radio

Till worked with long-term friend Sir Arnold Wesker again in 2007, when he was asked to write the featured song (to Wesker's lyrics) and incidental music for Wesker's radio play, The Rocking Horse, commissioned by the BBC World Service to celebrate theirs and Wesker's 75th birthday.[15] The play was aired in November 2007.

Personal life

Benjamin Till is married to actor and knitting guru Nathan Taylor.[16] The couple live in London.

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References
  1. 429harrowroad. "The Pepys Motet | Documentary Evidence". Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  2. www.bbc.co.uk – Today Programme Today Programme – Coverage of Oranges and Lemons
  3. www.bbc.co.uk – BBC London online BBC London – Coverage of Oranges and Lemons
  4. www.bbc.co.uk – BBC News BBC News – Coverage of Oranges and Lemons
  5. www.bbc.co.uk – BBC News BBC News – Coverage of Oranges and Lemons
  6. "BRASS The Musical". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  7. "BRASS". www.rnh.com. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  8. www.bbc.co.uk – Untold London Untold London Success Stories
  9. Broadcastnow.com Details of the top ten most praised programmes shown on Channel 4 in August 2008
  10. www.bbc.co.uk – Coventry Market: The Musical Film Premiere
  11. Coventry Market Blog, Diary for the Coventry Market: The Musical project.
  12. Metro The Musical Premiere
  13. Power, Ed (1 April 2014). "Our Gay Wedding: The Musical, Channel 4, review". ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  14. Dowling, Tim (1 April 2014). "Rev; Our Gay Wedding: The Musical – TV review". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
  15. www.bbc.co.uk BBC World Service – 2007, 75th Anniversary
  16. Guys Knit. 9 August 2018. ISBN 9781785211997.
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