Christian Benning.

» RHYTHMIC GENIUS. «

DIE ZEIT

Hailed by the press as “phenomenal” (Sueddeutsche Zeitung), a “rhythmic genius” (Die ZEIT) and “full of elegant perfection” (Kōbe Newspaper), multi-percussionist Christian Benning’s recent performances have attracted widespread attention worldwide.

His concerts, both as a soloist and with his ensemble Christian Benning Percussion Group, have recently taken place in the world’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Glocke in Bremen, theHercules Hall, the Isarphilharmonie and the Prinzregententheater in Munich, the Kraftwerk in Berlin, the Beethoven House in Bonn, the Musikverein in Graz, Milan Cathedral, the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion in Barcelona, the Borusan Music House in Istanbul, the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris, the George Enescu Hall in Bucharest, National Mall in Washington D.C., the Redeemer’s Church in Jerusalem, the Egyptian State Opera in Cairo and the Royal Opera House in Muscat.

In 2023, he and his Percussion Group staged the first percussion concert at the Sagrada Família in Barcelona, and in 2024, they performed at several venues in North America including the United Nations in New York City, as well as at theBiennale Musica in Venice. In 2025, Benning gave his first concerts in South America (including at Cusco Cathedral and the Gran Teatro Nacional in Lima), in Hong Kong and in Japan (including Kobe, Tokyo, Yokohama and at the Expo’25World Exhibition in Osaka). In 2027, his debut album BEAThoven will be released and presented as part of a tour of China, at the World Expo’27 in Belgrade as well as at the Beethoven Festival in Bonn.

» The exceptional musical talent Christian Benning ignites a firework of rhythms and sounds on stage together with his Percussion Group. «

SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG

In addition to successes at international competitions and concert tours across Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, this versatile percussionist performs regularly with renowned ensembles and instrumentalists. His chamber music projects include collaborations with Simone Rubino, Juan de la Rubia, Hansjoerg Albrecht, Cameron Carpenter, Johannes Obermeier, the Arcis Saxophone Quartet and the Neeb Piano Duo, amongst others. Concerts in these line-ups have taken him to the Rheingau Music Festival, the Heidelberg Spring, La Folle Journée and the Teatro Romano di Verona. His musical expressiveness has already enriched numerous recording projects in collaboration withDeutschlandfunk and the television and radio broadcasters BR, SWR, HR, WDR and NDR; these have been released on labels such as Genuin, Prospero and Audite, where he has also recorded own compositions.

Furthermore, Christian Benning performs as a timpanist with the Munich Bach Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the Port Louis State Orchestra, and has been a member of the Musica Libera ensemble since 2025. His passion for sharing his artistic expertise regularly takes him to academies and masterclasses at conservatoires in Germany, Italy, Spain, Romania, Israel and Mauritius as a teacher and lecturer. As a scholarship holder of the German Scholarship Foundation and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation, and as a recipient of the culture prizes of the city of Pasing and Sueddeutsche Zeitung, he is also involved in a collaboration with Holger Geschwindner and Dirk Nowitzki. As part of this, he has developed a music-/rhythm-based method for elite sports training, including a visualisation software, for which his start-up, Be the Beat GmbH, holds an international patent. Since 2022, he has been working on a PhD in the field of sports psychology at Brunel University of London and has already been awarded two international research prizes.

In 2024, he was awarded the Westphalian Music Prize, and his percussion group’s world premiere of Roaïkron by Samir Odeh-Tamimi was named the best by the Biennale Musica; in 2026, he will be awarded the Music Prize from the city of Munich and become residence artist at the Kulturraffinerie K714 in Monheim am Rhein.

At the Munich University of Music and Theatre, Christian Benning completed a five-year pre-college programme, followed by a bachelor’s and master’s degree and a postgraduate artist diploma (Excellence in Performance), studying with Dr Peter Sadlo, Raymond Curfs, Adel Shalaby, Arnold Riedhammer and Alexej Gerassimez. He gained further study experience in the USA with Robert van Sice at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University and at the Yale School of Music. Masterclasses and joint concert projects with Evelyn Glennie, Martin Grubinger, Lang Lang, András Schiff, Leon Fleisher, Kent Nagano and Axel Milberg have provided further formative artistic inspiration.

Christian Benning is endorsed by Meinl Cymbals, Meinl Percussion, Meinl Stick&Brush, Meinl Sonic Energy, SchlagZu,AlternateMode and vanLaack, and has been a Yamaha Artist since 2023.

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