Benjamin Peled, originally from Chicago, was appointed to the first violin section of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Amsterdam, in September 2006.  

 

In addition to performing as a guest Concertmaster for the Staatskapelle Berlin, and Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, he is also a regular substitute player with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.  Directly preceding his appointment, he completed a Master of Music in Violin Performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM), where he was a student of William Preucil.  

 

He received his Bachelor of Music in Violin Performance also from CIM as a student of Paul Kantor.  Previously, he spent a significant amount of his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  

 

Since joining the RCO, Peled has had many opportunities to perform chamber music throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, including in the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival, The Upper Galilee Voice of Music Festival in Kfar Blum, the Seoul Arts Center, Hamarikyu-Asahi Hall Tokyo, and in the Kleine Zaal of the Concertgebouw.  

 

He has participated in the Chamber Music Workshop at the Perlman Music Program, working with coaches such as Itzhak Perlman, Don Weilerstein, and Paul Katz.  As an orchestral player, Mr. Peled was a member of the Grant Park Symphony in Chicago and the Aspen Chamber and Festival Orchestras, as an orchestral fellowship recipient, and as a substitute player in both the New World Symphony and the Verbier Festival Orchestra.  

 

A founding member of the recently formed, Amsterdam-based Alma Quartet, he plays on a violin by J.B. Vuillaume on generous loan from the Stichting Donateurs Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest.