British baritone Benjamin Luxon has made a name for himself both on the opera stage and on record, particularly in numerous song cycles. Born in Redruth, Cornwall, on March 24, 1937, he studied at London's Guildhall School with Walther Gruner, and came to public attention when he won third prize in the 1961 ARD International Competition in Munich. He joined Benjamin Britten's company, The English Opera Group, and toured with Albert Herring and The Rape of Lucretia, before creating his first made-to-measure role in the 1971 TV opera Owen Wingrave. The following year, Benjamin Luxon made his debut at London's Royal Opera House in Peter Maxwell Davies' Taverner, and at the Glyndebourne Festival in Monteverdi's Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria. 1974 saw the start of a long association with The English National Opera, which saw the baritone perform all over the world, including at New York's Metropolitan Opera in Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin in 1980, at La Scala in Milan in 1986 and in Los Angeles in 1988 in Berg's Wozzeck, as well as in Munich and Vienna. Benjamin Luxon is also recognized as a great interpreter of melodies of all styles and periods, from early music to cycles composed by Schubert or Britten, most often with his faithful accompanist pianist David Willison from 1961 to 1999, as well as traditional British or Irish folk tunes with Bill Crofut. His discography includes some one hundred recordings in his multiple repertoires. Appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1986, he began to suffer from hearing problems around 1990, which led him to stop performing at the end of the decade. Retired in Massachusetts, USA, and now an American citizen, Benjamin Luxon died of colorectal cancer on July 26, 2024, at the age of 87.
