Mr Benjamin Beck is the Head of Strings in the School of Music at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.

Appointed in 2022, Mr Beck served as Principal Viola of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra until 2026, and has held principal positions with the Bavarian State Orchestra and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, as well as guest principal engagements with ensembles such as the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. A former member of the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, he has performed as soloist and chamber musician at the Wiener Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, and the Salzburg, Bayreuth, and Verbier Festivals. He previously served as Professor at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles.

Central to Mr Beck’s artistic practice is the expansion of the viola repertoire and the development of new performance formats through arrangement and interdisciplinary creation. His adaptation of Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen for actor, viola and piano, with a newly written text, has been produced in France and Germany. His string sextet arrangement of Wagner's Lohengrin, premiered at the Richard Wagner Museum in Bayreuth, is published by Hofmeister Musikverlag. His transcription of Stravinsky's Firebird for viola and piano extends this practice into the symphonic repertoire. His recordings include Les voix de l'alto (2015) and Love Beyond Death, with pianist Marie Rosa Günter, released on GENUIN Classics in 2023.

Mr Beck trained at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris, where he was awarded an Artist Diploma and Master’s degree, and obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Musicology from Sorbonne University. His principal teachers include Kim Kashkashian, Diemut Poppen, and Jean Sulem.

He is a laureate of the Llanes International String Competition and has received grants from the Forbesfest International Competition and the Fondation Safran pour la Musique. He is also active in educational outreach through Créations en Cours, supported by the French Ministry of Culture, and ICEP Music Sharing, in collaboration with Midori.