Benjamin Wolf
Musical Director
www.benjaminwolf.co.uk
Benjamin Wolf works as a conductor, pianist, composer, singer and academic. He is Musical Director of the Royal Free Music Society, the Zemel Choir, the Wallace Ensemble and Belsize Square Synagogue. In addition he is a regular conductor of the Quorum chamber choir. Performances with the Zemel Choir have included appearances at the new European Jewish Choral Festivals (created by the choir in 2012), Holocaust memorial services for the Mayor of London, concerts at the South Bank and St John's Smith Square, broadcasts for the BBC's Songs of Praise and Newsnight, and tours to Europe, Israel and the USA. Activities with the Wallace Ensemble have included performances at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room, while the professional choir of Belsize Square Synagogue has been featured on BBC radio and television (most recently in February 2015). Benjamin has also been involved in organising and conducting two major interfaith services at Westminster Abbey (featuring the Zemel and Belsize choirs): the ‘Service of Solemn Remembrance and Hope on the 75th Anniversary of Kristallnacht' (2014) and a special service commemorating the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau (2015). Both the Zemel and Belsize choirs have also performed at the International Louis Lewandowski Festival in Berlin. Performances with the Royal Free have included large-scale oratorios such as Mendelssohn's Elijah and a tour to Genoa in spring 2015 (to which they will return in May 2016).
As composer, he has written music for the concert hall and the stage, including works using the texts and modes of Ancient Greek, a piano concerto and a cello concerto commissioned for the 70th anniversary of Belsize Square synagogue. He has written a number of pieces for the Zemel Choir, created new instrumental works for the Chichester Festival in 2013 and 2014, and performed a revised version of his piano concerto in April 2015. As pianist, he works as both accompanist and solo recitalist, while his singing is primarily focussed on performances with his own Jewish barbershop quartet, bOYbershop, for which he has written a number of arrangements and original compositions, including comic songs The Only Jewish Cowgirl and Fifty Shades of Hay. This quartet has recently performed at the Chichester Festival and the Sacrées Journées de Strasbourg (November 2015) and released a new album entitled Bendigamos, which includes many of his arrangements.
Following the award of a PhD in 2010, he worked as a visiting lecturer at Royal Holloway and Senior Associate Teacher at Bristol University. In 2011 he was appointed as Lecturer in Music at Regent's University, London, where he teaches academic courses and runs the choirs of the Regent's School of Drama, Film and Media. He has given conference papers in the UK and America, and was on the organising team for a conference at the IMR in January 2013 (focussing on music in twentieth-century Britain). He has also worked as a researcher on a Royal Holloway project investigating the use of music to accompany silent films.
Joyce Sze-Wing Lau
Accompanist
Joyce Sze-wing Lau holds a BA, MPhil, and PGDE in Music from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where her graduate research included a context-specific study of Jewish music in Hong Kong. She subsequently completed an MA in Kodály Pedagogy at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music in Hungary, where she also pursued organ studies with Dr. Ruppert István. Her studies were supported by the DAAD, Peter Curzon Oram Charitable Trust, Sir Robert Black Trust Fund, and Sarolta Kodály scholarships.Joyce has always pursued multi-faceted interests in music, combining research, performance, and education. She has presented internationally, including at the International Council for Traditional Music and the International Kodály Symposium. An experienced accompanist, she has worked with numerous choirs, particularly children’s choirs such as Yip's Children’s Choir and Hope Through Music Children’s Choir. She has also served as conductor and music pedagogue at the Vienna Boys Choir Music Academy, leading her children’s groups in official events and on overseas tours. In addition, she has worked as an organist across different denominations. Her teaching draws on the Kodály approach, Yamaha music education, and the Wirth Method. With training in ethnomusicology and professional experience in Hong Kong, Hungary, and the UK, she brings a broad range of perspectives to performance and music education, making her particularly flexible and adaptable in ensemble settings. She aspires to be a force for social reform through music-making and teaching.
Joyce was delighted to join the Zemel Choir in September 2025, shortly after relocating to London. She is currently working as a peripatetic piano and musicianship teacher, as well as a church organist.
