Biography

Prairie Music Award nominee Ben Schenstead is a Saskatoon-based classical guitarist and music educator. Ben Schenstead’s earliest musical experience was on the accordion and piano. He took accordion lessons throughout his childhood, and learned how to play arrangements of light classics, folk songs from different lands, and modern compositions especially written for the instrument, all of which shaped his musical tastes. Participation in music festivals and performing with various accordion ensembles was the norm for Ben and his siblings, a time that Ben appreciates as being very special.

He took up the guitar when his older sister who was herself an accomplished accordionist and music teacher, bought him an electric guitar and amp as a gift when he was about 13. As a teenager, Ben played electric guitar in a rock band and toured through many towns and cities in Saskatchewan, but eventually decided to make the classical guitar his main instrument.

Ben eventually obtained the ARCT Diploma in classical guitar from the Royal Conservatory of Music, University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Music degree (with Great Distinction) from the University of Saskatchewan. Although largely self-taught on the guitar, Ben has taken masterclasses with guitar luminaries Christopher Parkening in Bozeman, Montana, and Oscar Ghiglia at the Banff Centre of Fine Arts, and more recently in Germany with masters Pavel Steidl and Manuel Barrueco.

From the early 1980's through 2001, Ben taught guitar for the U of S Music Department and at his own music academy, obtaining his B.Ed. and M.Ed. degrees along the way. In 2001, Ben stepped away from private music lessons to focus on classroom teaching. He taught high school for five years, which included courses in guitar, then post-secondary courses in arts methods, music appreciation, and education courses as assistant professor at the First Nations University of Canada in Prince Albert and Regina. Ben has recently returned to music teaching at his studio in Saskatoon, which complements his performance activities.

Schenstead's first CD Sunburst, released in 1999, garnered him a nomination for a Prairie Music Award. The Winnipeg Free Press described the album as “very impressive… eclectic …Schenstead is a technically whistle-clean, tasteful artist…well-sprung rhythms and solid lyrical sensibility..."

Ben's second CD, Spirit of the Guitar: From Latin-America to Europe, was released in 2010. Half of the album is devoted to solo guitar pieces mainly from Latin America; the other half showcases Ben's guitar playing with the Saskatoon-based Prairie Virtuosi Orchestra, which specializes in Baroque music. Among the pieces are a rarely-recorded concerto by Karl Kohaut and Schenstead's arrangement of the famous Adagio by Albinoni.

Ben Schenstead has also been a guest performer twice with the Amati Quartet, a distinguished string ensemble based in Saskatoon who play priceless historical Italian instruments. Ben's guest performances included Boccherini's "Fandango" Quintet, Vivaldi's Concerto in D, and Schenstead's own adaptation of Alessandro Marcello's Oboe Concerto in D minor, for guitar and string quartet.

Schenstead's guitar playing can be found on many recordings produced in Saskatchewan, documentaries, instructional videos, and artistic projects. Ben has served as an adjudicator for many music festivals and talent competitions in western Canada. Ben has entertained at countless private and corporate engagements in the province as a solo guitarist, and with his duo which plays Latin, jazz, light classics and contemporary music.