BIOGRAPHY
Young, New, and Bold
Benjamin Montes was born in Miami, Florida in the year 2006. At only a year old, he began to experiment with the keyboard, developing perfect pitch in the process. At only 2 years of age, Benjamin taught himself to play common melodies such as Happy Birthday or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. At the age of 4, Benjamin received his first acoustic piano and began taking formal lessons. This officially brought him into the world of classical music, winning various prizes and awards in young arts competitions in Florida.
Becoming A Composer
At the age of 4, Benjamin wrote his first song titled "The Wedding Song." It was a simple piano and vocal piece, which won him an award for best original composition in a young arts competition in 2010. At the age of 5, Benjamin composed his first original classical piano piece. At the age of 12, Benjamin began to shift his focus from classical piano performance to composition, writing 4 works in the year of 2018. One was an Etude for piano, another being a single-movement Sonatina for piano, another being a three-movement Fantasia for Piano, and a three-movement work for String Orchestra.
At the age of 13, Benjamin released his piano Sonatina titled Waterwheel onto streaming platforms in 2019. After writing various sets of Etudes for the piano, in 2021 at the age of 15, Benjamin released his second piano solo piece, A Song of a Thunderstorm, onto streaming platforms. He was also commissioned by a local real estate company to compose five pieces of original background music for social media promotion and advertising. That same year, he began to experiment with digital instruments, DAWs, and synthesizer programming. In 2022, Benjamin released his first complete album titled The Songwriter's Journal onto streaming platforms internationally, earning him his first popular track titled Psychopath.
Around this time, Benjamin began to take private composition lessons wtih Rome-prize winning composer Charles Norman Mason, who also serves as the department chair for Music Theory and Composition at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music.
Journey to Media Scoring
In 2022, Benjamin's first real exposure to media scoring was through Todd Masten's scores to the Age of Empires Definite Edition remakes. However, it was not until he heard Thomas Newman's original score to 007 Skyfall that Benjamin decided he would become a film composer. Ever since then, he has dedicated every day of his life to studying and understanding the work, styles, and craft of film composers. He also began his research into film musicology, charting the history and evolution of film music styles across genres.
In 2024, Benjamin was accepted to study at the University of Miami's Frost School of Music, and is currently majoring in Media Scoring and Production under Emmy-winning and Grammy-winning film and television composer Carlos Rafael Rivera. He is also pursuing a minor in Music Theory and Composition under Rome-prize-winning composer Charles Norman Mason.
His latest concert work, prismAtic, was applauded by both Dr. Charles Norman Mason and grammy-winning professor Lansing McClosky. Benjamin continues to reside in Miami at the Frost School of Music, seeking opportunities to perform concert works, as well as contribute scoring work for an assortment of films and television projects.