Oxford pianist Benjamin Grønlie played Bach’s Goldberg Variations on 5 December 2021. The concert can be viewed online (see YouTube panels below).

J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations, BWV 988, is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also have been the first performer of the work.

Benji Grønlie is Junior Organ Scholar at St Giles’ Church, Oxford, where he was also a chorister. A committed church musician, Benji also holds an organ scholarship from the Dr Martin Clarke Young Organ Scholars’ Trust. He studies the organ at the St Giles’ Academy with Nicholas Prozzillo, voice with Jeff Stewart, and piano and composition at the Junior Royal Academy with Graham Caskie and Matthew Taylor. He passed his Grade 8 piano and organ with distinction and is now preparing for his ARCO examination. He has won a number of prizes including Oxfordshire Young Musician of the Year in 2020, and the New Directions Composition Competition at Robinson College Cambridge in 2021.

Proceeds from this concert have been given to the St Giles’ Organ Fund.