Ben Clapton

Ben Clapton is a violinist, musician, teacher and composer who has performed around Australia. Currently the Concertmaster of the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (MetSO), Ben has also been Concertmaster with the Bendigo Symphony Orchestra, where he led performances at Ulumbarra Theatre and was Associate Concertmaster for a side by side concert with the BSO and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. He has also been a member of the Faith Court Orchestra, WA Youth Orchestra, and WAYMA Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ben has been a soloist with the Cradle Coast Chamber Orchestra, performing a selection from Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, and has performed solo recitals in Perth as part of his studies at the WA Academy of Performing Arts.

Ben loves performing in the pit, having performed in amateur theatre productions of Chicago, Spamalot, Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat, Oklahoma!, Into the Woods, The Mikado and Princess Ida, as well as in the world premiere performance of Follow the Light. Ben has also performed as part of Alternative Symphony – a group of musicians based around the world who put on symphonic renditions of contemporary artists such as Daft Punk, Dr Dre, the Notorious B.I.G. and 2pac.

As a composer and arranger, Ben has had his music performed around the world. One of his compositions was selected to be workshopped by members of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London, and his arrangement of Pachelbel’s “Canon in D” for solo violin has been performed in the US, UK, Australia, Jamaica, Germany, Malaysia, New Zealand, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia. He is a winner of the Massed Choir Festival Composition Competition, with his work Watch Us Shine to be premiered at the 2025 Massed Choirs Festival in Perth.

Ben is a recent graduate of the Master of Teaching (Secondary) at Edith Cowan University. After a number of years of experience teaching instrumental violin and viola at John XXIII College, Mercy College, West Coast Music School, Guildford Grammar and Thornlie Christian College, Ben is excited to be stepping into the classroom to share music for all people. He is currently the Director of Music at Aveley Secondary College. He is passionate about learning using evidence based techniques, such as Explicit Direct Learning, and exploring how that can be incorporated into the music classroom to teach and inspire young people to share their musical talents.

Ben started learning the violin through the School of Instrumental Music (now Instrumental Music School Services) at Wembley Downs Primary School, before progressing to John Septimus Roe Anglican Community School where he studied with Fiona Chong. He was awarded a music scholarship to St Mark’s Anglican Community School where he studied with Zac Rowntree before gaining entry to the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) to study an Advanced Diploma of Performing Arts and then a Bachelor of Music. While at WAAPA, Ben studied under Peter Tanfield, Rebecca White and Jacek Slawomirski.