Benyamin Nuss (born 20 June 1989) is a German pianist and composer.Benyamin Nuss website

(accessed 2010-03-13)

Life

Nuss was born in

Bergisch Gladbach Bergisch Gladbach () is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in the Cologne/Bonn Region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and capital of the Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis (district). Geography Bergisch Gladbach is east of the Rhine and abo ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

.Benyamin Nuss website

(accessed 2014-11-07) He began playing the

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

at age 6 in 1995 and was taught and supported by his then teacher Viktor Langemann. He also was greatly supported by his father, the internationally renowned

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

trombonist Ludwig Nuss. His uncle is jazz pianist Hubert Nuss. With a good environment, he grew up with music from different genres. Later, inspired by “Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum” from “Children’s Corner,” he began at the age of ten to study the composer

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

, and soon after the works of

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

. In 2004, Nuss was taught privately with concert-pianist Andreas Frölich in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

, Germany, and later changed teachers to Ilja Scheps as a youth-student. After high school, Nuss studied at the

Hochschule für Musik Köln ' (, plural: ') is the generic term in German for institutions of higher education, corresponding to ''universities'' and ''colleges'' in English. The term ''Universität'' (plural: ''Universitäten'') is reserved for institutions with the right t ...

and graduated with a Bachelor in Music. He visited masterclasses there with Anatol Ugorski, Einar Steen-Nokleberg and

Ragna Schirmer Ragna Schirmer (born 1972) is a German classical pianist and academic teacher.
on Bach Cantatas Website ...

. Through his success in German national music competition

Jugend Musiziert ''Jugend musiziert'' is a music competition for children and adolescents in Germany on regional, federal and national level. ''Jugend musiziert'' in Germany In Germany, the nationwide competition refers to young adults up to 20 years and for t ...

, Nuss was invited to play concerts with the Youth Orchestra of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

. In 2006, Nuss received a stipendium from the ''Werner Richard - Dr. Carl Dörken Stiftung'' and played recitals and concerts with different orchestras of

. In 2008, he was chosen for "Best of NRW", which allowed him to play twelve concerts in diverse concert halls in

. Besides his love for classical music and jazz, he always had a passion for

videogames A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual feedback from a display device, mo ...

and videogame music. He was the featured soloist in the award-winning

Symphonic Fantasies ''Symphonic Fantasies: Music from Square Enix'' was an award-winning symphonic tribute concert originally held in Cologne, Germany on September 12, 2009, at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall featuring video game music from Japanese game developer Squ ...

and Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy concerts in Tokyo, Chicago, Cologne and Stockholm. Additionally, his first soundtrack released was a tribute to Japanese composer

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese composer and keyboardist best known for his contributions to the ''Final Fantasy'' video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton Joh ...

, the former composer of the Japanese video game series, ''

Final Fantasy is a Japanese fantasy Anthology series, anthology media franchise created by Hironobu Sakaguchi which is owned, developed, and published by Square Enix (formerly Square (video game company), Square). The franchise centers on a series of fanta ...

''. In 2010, Benyamin did a tour through Germany, where he played again in many major concert halls, among them the

Berliner Philharmonie The () is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany, and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is on Herbert-von-Karajan- ...

, Frankfurt

Alte Oper Alte Oper (Old Opera) is a concert hall in Frankfurt am Main, Hesse, Germany. It is located in the inner city, Innenstadt, within the banking district Bankenviertel. Today's Alte Oper was built in 1880 as the city's opera house, which was destr ...

, Hamburg

Laeiszhalle The Laeiszhalle (), formerly Musikhalle, is a concert hall in the Neustadt, Hamburg, Neustadt of Hamburg, Germany, and home to the Hamburger Symphoniker and the Philharmoniker Hamburg. The hall is named after the German shipowning company F. ...

, Stuttgart "Liederhalle" and many more. Since then, Nuss has played solo performances on TV, like in “Stars von Morgen” with

Rolando Villazón Rolando Villazón Mauleón (born 22 February 1972) is a Mexican operatic tenor, stage director, author, radio and television personality, and artistic director. He resides in France and received his citizenship in 2007. Villazón has published ...

and performed in front of German Chancellor,

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

. In 2012, he recorded his second album, titled ''Exotica'', which was followed by concerts in Tokyo and Singapore. Afterwards, did recordings and concerts for radio stations, performing Gershwin's “Concert For Piano in F” with the ''Deutsche Radio Philharmonie – Saarbrücken'', ''Rhapsody In Blue'', and Ravel's ''Piano Concerto Nr.2'' with the ''WDR Rundfunk Orchester.'' Lately, he has worked in close collaboration with Japanese composer

Masashi Hamauzu is a Japanese composer, pianist, and lyricist. Hamauzu, who was employed at Square Enix from 1996 to 2010, was best known during that time for his work on the ''Final Fantasy'' and ''SaGa'' video game series. Born into a musical family in German ...

, performing his compositions in ''Piano Works Delta/Epsilon/T_Comp1'' (2013), ''Opus 4 Piano and Chamber Music Works'' (2014), and also some pieces in Benyamin's own album ''Exotica''. Both of these were not released in any soundtrack, and are found only on his official

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel. Nuss performed piano at a Fanfest event for the Japanese MMORPG

Final Fantasy XIV ''Final Fantasy XIV'' is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Square Enix. Directed and produced by Naoki Yoshida and released worldwide for PlayStation 3 and Windows in August 2013, it replaced ...

in 2017 in Frankfurt, Germany, performing alongside vocalist Susan Calloway in a concert performance playing a number of popular music tracks from the Final Fantasy XIV game. Nuss was praised by Japanese composer

at the event for his piano performance citing his passion for both the piano and the music he played. Nuss performed piano at another Fanfest event in 2019 in Paris, France, performing alongside vocalist Susan Calloway in a concert performance playing some news tracks from Final Fantasy XIV.

Albums

* 2010 – ''Benyamin Nuss Plays Uematsu'';

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

* 2012 – ''Exotica''; Deutsche Grammophon ** with works by

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (, ; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His composition ...

Heitor Villa-Lobos Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has globally bec ...

Alberto Ginastera Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (; April 11, 1916June 25, 1983) was an Argentine composer of classical music. He is considered to be one of the most important 20th-century classical music, 20th-century classical composers of the Americas. Biography G ...

, Charles T. Griffes,

Mily Balakirev Mily Alexeyevich Balakirev ( , ; ,BGN/PCGN romanization of Russian, BGN/PCGN romanization: ; ALA-LC romanization of Russian, ALA-LC system: ; ISO 9, ISO 9 system: . ; – )Russia was still using Adoption of the Gregorian calendar#Adoption in E ...

Alan Hovhaness Alan Hovhaness (; born Alan Vaness Chakmakjian; March 8, 1911 – June 21, 2000) was an American composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts ...

, Alexandre Tansman, Martin Torp, Benyamin Nuss,

Jonne Valtonen Jonne Valtonen is a Finnish composer, arranger and orchestrator. He contributed to demoscene and tracker music, under the name Purple Motion, and with Future Crew. Life and early career Jonne Valtonen was born in Turku, Finland and was rais ...

and

* 2014 – Masashi Hamauzu: ''Opus 4'', with Lisa Schumann (Violin) and Kana Shirao (Cello);

Mons Records Mons Records is a German independent record label for jazz and classical music founded in 1991 by Thilo Berg in Trippstadt. The label has released music by among others Clark Terry, Jeff Hamilton, Bobby Shew, Tom Harrell, Ray Brown, Benny ...

* 2015 –

Paul Juon Paul Juon (, ''Pavel Fyodorovich Yuon''; 6 March 1872 – 21 August 1940) was a Russian-born Swiss composer. Life Juon was born in Moscow, where his father was an insurance official. His parents were Swiss, and he attended a German primary school ...

: ''Silhouettes'' op. 9 and op. 43, ''Sieben kleine Tondichtungen'' op. 81, with Malwina Sosnowski (Violin) und Rebekka Hartmann (Violin); Musiques Suisses * 2016 –

Nikolai Kapustin Nikolai Girshevich Kapustin ( ; 22 November 19372 July 2020) was a Russian composer and pianist of Russian-Jewish descent. He played with early Soviet jazz bands such as the Oleg Lundstrem Orchestra. In his compositions, mostly for piano, he o ...

: ''Works for Cello'', with Christine Rauh (cello); SWR Music * 2018 – '' Mia Brentano’s Hidden Sea: 20 Songs for 2 Pianos'', with Max Nyberg (2nd Piano);

* 2022 – '' Mia Brentano’s Summerhouse: New Music for 2 Pianos'', with Billy Test (2nd Piano); Mons Records

Performances

Video games

* 2013 - '' Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 Remix''; Performed ''Lord of the Castle'' * 2014 - '' Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Remix'' * 2016 - ''

World of Final Fantasy ''World of Final Fantasy'' is a role-playing video game developed by Tose and published by Square Enix. It is a spin-off of the ''Final Fantasy'' franchise, featuring characters from across its mainline and supplementary entries. Initially releas ...

'' * 2017 - ''Kingdom Hearts Orchestra -World Tour-''

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuss, Benyamin 1989 births German composers German male composers German pianists Living people People from Bergisch Gladbach German male pianists 21st-century German pianists 21st-century German male musicians