Benjamin Toth, Professor of Percussion at The University of Hartford’s Hartt School, and recipient of the 2021 Roy E. Larsen Award for Excellence in Teaching, has presented concerts, radio and television broadcasts, master-classes, and children’s programs in dozens of countries, spanning six continents. His performances have been described as “tour de force” (Gramophone), “riveting” (New York Times), “dazzling” (Beaumont Enterprise), “powerful” (Louisville Courier-Journal), “primal” (Die Rheinpfalz), “enchanting” (Kornwestheimer Zeitung), “beautiful and unusual” (Washington Post), “passionate” (Westfalen Blatt), “absolutely precise” (Marburger Neue Zeitung), “hugely virtuosic” (BBC magazine), “awe-inspiring” (Saginaw News), and “breathtaking” (Cleveland Plain Dealer).
His varied musical interests are reflected in his performance credits, highlights of which include: chamber music performances with (Percussive Arts Society Hall of Fame inductees) Percussion Group Cincinnati (member, 1987-1992), the Jovan Percussion Projekt (member, 1996-present), Gilda Lyons and the Dalí Quartet, and Myriad chamber ensemble, and duo performances with Nebojša Jovan Živković, David Macbride, Robert Black, Catherine Tait, and Susan Botti; concerto appearances with the Cincinnati, Lake Forest, Greensboro, Midland (MI), and Peoria (IL) Symphony Orchestras, the Symphony of Southeast Texas, and the Eastman Wind Ensemble; orchestral and ensemble work with the Sinfonia da Camera, Akron Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Brass Band of Battle Creek, and the Milwaukee Ballet; percussion and drum set work for regional theaters and national tours of Broadway musicals for the Goodspeed Opera House, Hartford Stage, Kenley Players, and Bushnell Theater, and for many touring artists, including Red Skelton, William Warfield, Mitzi Gaynor, Carol Lawrence, Bob Crosby, and the Jimmy Dorsey Band. He has premiered over 60 works, including two concerti written for Percussion Group Cincinnati (by Gerhard Samuel and Russell Peck), and three concerti written expressly for him (by David Macbride, Nebojša Jovan Živković, and Joseph Schwantner).
His performance venues have included Ravinia, the Walker Arts Center, Carnegie Recital Hall, Symphony Space, Hong Kong Cultural Centre, Dagbe Arts Centre (Ghana), the Encontro Internacional de Percussao (Brazil), the Fifth International Percussion Workshop (Poland), the Festival Bicich Nastroju (Czech Republic), the June in Buffalo festival (with composer Steve Reich), Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival (Germany), Glasbeni Maj v Pomurju festival (Slovenia), Nomus Music Festivities (Serbia), the Lithuanian National Philharmonic concert series, the Australian Drum and Percussion Festival, the Gudong Guoyin international percussion festival (Beijing), the John Cage Centennial Festival (Washington, D.C.), the College Band Directors National Association national convention, Sixteen PASIC appearances (including collaborations with composers Herbert Brün and John Cage), and the 2000 Trinidad Panorama.
He has recorded for the Albany, Arabesque, Bis, Centaur, Chen Li Music, Equilibrium, GIA, Hartt, Impermanence Records, Innova, Musica Europea, Naxos, TNC and Yesa labels, having appeared on more than twenty recordings. His interest in world percussion has led to intensive study (in Ghana) with master musicians Bernard Woma, and Emmanuel and Ruben Agbeli. He has studied with frame drum virtuosi Glen Velez and Shane Shanahan, Latin percussionists John Amira and Johnny Almendra, African percussion specialist Joseph Galeota, and Brazilian percussionists Rogerio Boccato and Vinicius Barros. His primary teachers were Thomas Siwe, Larry Snider, and Bob McKee.