Bennet Elias

Bennet Elias was born in Borken/Westfalia, Germany. The son of a medical doctor and a hospital nurse moved at the age of 4 with his family to the south of Germany, region of Stuttgart, where he lived most of the time until he finished his clarinet studies.

The singer and pianist`s musical experiences, influences and his music studies are versatile. Bennet grew up in a family where music was always present. His mother often sang with him and his two brothers, with whom later he played in various bands. At the age of 8 he has his first piano lesson and he was 12 when he found in his parent’s vinyl collection a Louis Armstrong record. This find was very important to him, he didin’t stop listening to the music of Satchmo and at that time he discovered his fascination for Jazz music.

Today the interpretations and compositions of Bennet Elias travel through the styles of jazz, chanson and pop, using as a dialogue not only the different styles of music, as well as the inherent characteristics of the languages in which he sings. In addition, his vocal improvisations give a special nuance to the songs and are characteristical for his work. Thereby he addresses the jazz audience just as well as enthusiasts for more popular music styles.

At the age of 14 he had his first clarinet lesson and he was 16 years old when he had his first contact with the saxophone. At that time he began to play indefatigably the transcriptions of improvisations of Charlie Parker and Benny Goodman, which to this day influences his vocal improvisations. At the same period he also got with enthusiasm into pop music like for example the music of the Beatles and Billy Joel, transcribing and playing by ear on the piano harmonies and melodies of many songs.

Already during his schooldays he was very into languages, which he continued whilst his study period. Today Bennet Elias combines the various possibilities creating sounds and colours with the English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Portuguese language in his versatile repertoire.

In 1991 Bennet began to study clarinet with Prof. Waldemar Wandel (Consortium Classicum) at the University of Music in Trossingen/Germany where he graduates in 1996. In the same year he began to take singing lessons with Prof. Ulrike Sonntag (solo singer at the opera houses in Vienna, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Professor at the University of Music in Stuttgart) and studied from 1997 to 2000 Opera and Concert singing at the University of Music Saarland in Saarbrücken/Germany.

The many years of music studies, which gave him the instrumental and vocal technic, made possible the continuous development of his own ideas of sounds and vocal improvisations, favouring during various performances as a singer and as an instrumentalist his close relationship to the stage and to the audience.

In 2001 Bennet Elias moves to Berlin to work together with his brother, film music composer Karim Sebastian Elias, on a project quite distinctive of what he had done up to that point: Participating in various film music projects. In this colaboration he composes, arranges, produces and performs film music and songs for movies and television series. At the same time he concentrates more and more on his work as a singer and pianist, compiling a versatile song repertoire which he performs in clubs, in hotels and at events - like at the award evening of the Television-Festival in Baden-Baden - combining it with his experiences as a composer, arranger and producer. He performs as well solo as in the trio / quartet with Andrea Marcelli - Drums, Jonathan Robinson - Bass, Dirk Engelhardt - Saxophone.

In February 2007 Bennet Elias moves to Barcelona, Spain, where he continues his work as a singer, pianist and composer in the music styles of Jazz, Chanson and Pop. He writes his first Spanish-language song - „Ahora“ – and gets to know the live music clubs and bars, singing and playing in the WTF Jam Sessions and in bars like for example ”La Serilla” and ”Chaise Lounge”, trying to catch the impressions of Barcelona’s varied music scene.

At the same time he produces new recordings, accomplishing to express his style by performing not only classics with new arrangements and vocal improvisations but also by recording own compositions.

Since August 2009 Bennet Elias lives in London, UK