Bennie Clayton Caston Jr.

Style: Opera; Jazz; Classical; Musical Theatre

Title: Professor of Voice

Bio: Tenor Ben Caston has been praised as “a pleasantly sinewy tenor” in Highland Park Chorale’s March 2023 performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at Moody Performance Hall in the Dallas Morning News. Recent performances include Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Mozart’s Solemn Vespers and Missa brevis in F major, the Evangelist role in Chilcott’s St. John Passion, Haydn’s Schöpfungsmesse, Bach’s Magnificat, Gabriel Jackson’s Requiem, and several Bach cantatas. In 2015 and 2017, Caston performed Handel’s Messiah in Fort Worth’s Bass Hall with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra and was lauded for the lyric quality of his voice. Other performances include Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, Mozart’s Requiem, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Schubert’s Mass in G, Handel’s Messiah, Honegger’s King David, Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noël, Teichler’s The Good Samaritan, and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music with various choral societies, symphony orchestras, and colleges in Texas, Georgia, and South Carolina. A native of Liberty, Mississippi, Caston is a graduate of William Carey University (1996) in Hattiesburg, MS, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, where he earned a Master of Music (1998) and Doctor of Musical Arts (2005), each with an emphasis in church music and voice. He has completed additional graduate coursework in choral conducting through Westminster Choir College and is a Distinguished Voice Professional through the New York Singing Teachers’ Association. He has completed Levels 1-3 of Somatic Voicework™, The LoVetri Method. Caston serves as Professor of Voice and Chair of the Performance and Pedagogy Division in the School of Church Music and Worship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he teaches applied voice, voice pedagogy, and directs the Southwestern Singers. Since 1994 Caston has served Baptist churches in Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas in music ministry. He currently serves as the minister of music at Gambrell Street Baptist Church. Caston is an active member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing, American Choral Directors Association, and The Southern Baptist Church Music Conference. He and his wife, Rebecca, have two children, Clay and Sydney, and they live in Fort Worth. In February 2023, Caston conducted the Fauré Requiem and Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs sung by the Southwestern Singers. He has also recently conducted Bach’s Cantata Nun komm der Heiden Heiland, BWV 61, Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noël, and the Rutter Requiem. In November 2021, Caston conducted Handel’s Coronation Anthem No. 2, “Let Thy Hand Be Strengthened,” Bach’s Cantata Herr Jesu Christ, du höchstes Gut, BWV 113, and Vivaldi’s Gloria with Southwestern Singers and Gambrell Street Baptist Church’s Sanctuary Choir. Prior to his arrival at Southwestern, he was the Director of Choral Studies and Chair of the Music and Fine Arts Division at Truett-McConnell University in Cleveland, Georgia where he conducted Mozart’s Requiem, Handel’s Messiah, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Haydn’s Te Deum, Mendelssohn’s Hear My Prayer, Rutter’s Magnificat, and Rutter’s Requiem with the Community Choir and Orchestra.

Voice Type: Tenor

Music Styles Taught: Opera; Jazz; Classical; Musical Theatre

Availability: I am available as a performer; I am currently accepting private students; I accept students through a college or university program

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