Benny Aghassi

Benny Aghassi, born in Israel (1978), began his recorder studies with Bracha Kol. During his studies at the Rubin Academy of Music in Jerusalem he won several competitions, including the Woodwind Concerto Competition and the Early Music Competition. He received his Bachelor of Music degree at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he studied with Sébastien Marq (recorder) and Donna Agrell (baroque and classical bassoons), and completed his Masters degree (‘cum laude’) with Heiko ter Schegget at The Conservatory of Utrecht. He currently lives in The Hague and teaches historical bassoon at the Amsterdam conservatory and Bremen Hochschule.
Benny was chosen to play with the European Union Baroque Orchestra (Lars Ulrik Mortensen). He currently plays and record with orchestras such as Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the 18th century (Frans Brüggen), The Academy of Ancient Music (Richard Egarr), Al Ayre Español (Eduardo López Banzo), The Netherlands Bach Society (Jos van Veldhoven), Orchestre des Champs Elysées (Philippe Herreweghe), B’Rock, Orchestra Libera Classica (Hidemi Suzuki), Musica ad Rhenum (Jed Wentz), Holland Baroque Society, Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra (Ton Koopman) and Les Musiciens du Prince (Cecilia Bartoli). In 2005 he won 2 first prizes in the ‘Aviv Competitions’ in Tel-Aviv for Old Music Instruments, and Best Performance of an Israeli Work. He has held a grant from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation between 1997-2005.