Biography
Job title: Lecturer
Courses taught: BA (Hons) Music (Popular), MA Music
Specialisms: Popular Voice
Instruments taught: Popular Voice
Ben Hennessy-Garside [BA (Hons.)] is a music educator with experience playing a range of instruments, composing and producing. Now specialising in voice, Ben's role at Leeds Conservatoire is as a singing coach on the Popular Music pathway, whilst also teaching in one-to-one settings as a self-employed singing coach locally to his Lancashire hometown of Heysham and nationally (via. video conferencing software).
His students include / have included those with exposure on BBC Radio One, artists with Spotify streams in excess of 3 million, signed artists, professional / semi -professional function singers, other singing teachers and amateurs.
He began playing piano at the age of 12, before expanding through voice, drums, bass, guitar, composition and technology. He played in and wrote for a number of local bands before attending Leeds Conservatoire in 2003 as an undergraduate, studying Music Production. During his time as a student at Leeds Conservatoire (Leeds College of Music at the time), Ben acted as a Leeds based Scout for Faith & Hope Records (Mint Royale, Subaqwa, National Forest), also working in music instrument retail and as a live sound engineer.
In 2008, Ben was awarded a Post Graduate Certificate in Education with a focus on the post-compulsory sector and has worked in music education ever since, delivering a wide range of units with topics including performance, composition, arrangement, theory, sound recording and the music industry, alongside basic piano tuition and the vocal coaching outlined above. Across 2021 and 2022 Ben co-wrote, co-produced and appeared in the educational podcast 'Charting Tracks: a Holistic Guide for Professional Music Makers' alongside grammy award winning engineer and producer Aamir Yaqub and Chris O'Gorman, ex head of digital for Capitol Records and current Director of Moledro Digital.
