Benjamin Kobler performs regularly in the US (New York: Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Boston: Harvard University), Asia, South America as well as in the largest concert halls in Europe, such as the Royal-Festival Hall (London), the Philharmonie de Paris, the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Musikverein (Vienna), the Philharmonie (Berlin) and the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg).
He is accompanied by renowned orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the New World Symphony Orchestra (Miami), the Nederlands Kamerorkest, the RSO Berlin and works with the conductors Myung-Whun Chung, Peter Eötvös, Vladimir Jurowski, Reinbert de Leeuw, Stefan Asbury, Peter Rundel, Ilan Volkov, Sir Simon Rattle and Bas Wiegers.
He is a welcome guest at leading festivals, including the BBC Proms (London), Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Klavier-Festival Ruhr, Zaterdags-Matinee (Amsterdam) and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival. In August 2006 he was honoured for the best concert of the week at the “Edinburgh Festival” for his performance of “Des canyons aux étoiles …” by O. Messiaen with an Angel-award.
Benjamin Kobler has been a pianist with the Ensemble Musikfabrik (Cologne) since December 2007.
Numerous CD recordings and radio recordings document the versatile activities of the pianist, notably at the Online Label Musikfabrik.
He is the premiere interpreter and dedicatee of numerous piano solo pieces (Ablinger, Baltakas, Brass, Finnendahl, Haddad, Kagel, Pousseur, Stockhausen, v.d. Aa) and is happy to commission new works; currently a new Piano-Study by Unsuk Chin and a piano piece (“Nuss”) by Enno Poppe are awaiting their première.
Benjamin Kobler studied at the conservatories of Cologne and Karlsruhe and at the Conservatoire de Paris with Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Georges Pludermacher and Carmen Piazzini. He also owed decisive impulses from new music chamber music class of Peter Eötvös.
In a friendly collaboration with Karlheinz Stockhausen that lasted 10 years, Benjamin Kobler acquired almost all of Stockhausen’s solo piano works as well as Kontakte, Mantra, Schlagtrio and Kreuzspiel. Many of these exemplary performances are documented on CD. Moreover, he is dedicatee and première performer of the last piano solo pieces – “NATÜRLICHE DAUERN” – by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
He enjoys passing on his experience in teaching activities, such as regular seminaries for contemporary music at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana (Lugano), a yearly Master-Class at the Stockhausen Stockhausen Courses (Kürten), piano courses at the University of Córdoba (Argentina) and as a lecturer in the Master’s programme for New Music at the Folkwang University (Essen).
Since 2023 he has been appointed Piano Professor (New Music) at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf.
In 2005 he was a jury member of the Gaudeamus Competition for Interpreters (Amsterdam).
Benjamin Kobler lives with his wife, the Argentinian pianist Laura Alvarez, and their three children in Cologne.
