Ben Smith is a pianist and composer specialising in contemporary and experimental music. Hailed as one of “the finest new-music pianists in London” (Tempo) and a player of “extraordinary precision and insight” (The Guardian), he is in demand as a soloist, chamber, and orchestral performer (Apartment House, BBCSO, Chroma Ensemble, Explore Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, LSO, Phaedra Ensemble, Riot Ensemble). Known for daring and virtuosic performances which traverse the extremes of the contemporary repertoire, he has given dozens of world premieres across the UK and Europe (Aldeburgh Festival, BBC Total Immersion, Cafe OTO, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, inn:pust festval, London Contemporary Music Festival, Musicon, Ny Musik i Birkerød, Spitalfields Music, Transit: Festival voor nieuwe muziek, performing at London venues including Barbican Hall, Kings Place, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Wigmore Hall). He is currently Musical Director on Thespians (UK Tour) and Associate MD on Operation Mincemeat (Fortune Theatre). In recent years he has conducted performances of Sarah Angliss’s Giant (RBO; Aldeburgh Festival), Alastair White’s RUNE, (Tête-à-Tête Opera Festival), and worked as repetiteur for 4.48 Psychosis (RBO) and Sky in a Small Cage (Mahogany Opera). Recording projects include solo works by Leo Chadburn (library of nothing) and Sylvia Lim, and the complete piano works of Evan Johnson (all that dust). Ben was a Junior Fellow at Guildhall School of Music & Drama from 2020-2022, where he previously studied with Laurence Crane, Rolf Hind, and James Weeks.