After graduating from singing at the Bratislava Conservatory, he continued his studies in 1997 at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and at JAMU in Brno. He graduated in 2003 at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under the guidance of the world personality of vocal art Sergei Kopčák.
In 1997 he won the 3rd prize at the Cavalera Carl Vendera International Singing Competition in Bratislava, associated with the opportunity to perform a concert performance of the competition winners in Italy, and two years later he won 2nd place at the Antonín Dvořák International Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary. In August 2001 he became a laureate and winner of the prize awarded by the Darclée Foundation to the Haricle Darclée International Singing Competition in Romania, and subsequently in September 2001 he won the prestigious George Enescu International Singing Competition in Bucharest. In February 2006, he won the International Under-32 Singing Competition in Berlin, and played the character of Zacharias in Verdi’s Nabucco. In the 1998/99 season he was a guest soloist of the SND Chamber Opera in Bratislava. Since 2002 he has been a soloist at the State Opera in Bánská Bystrica. In January 2004 he made his debut at the SND Opera in Bratislava in Verdi’s Nabucco as Zachary and from January 2007 he became its soloist – he was engaged in key bass roles in world opera: Colline in Puccini’s Bohemia, Vodník in Rusalka A. Dvořák, in Verdi’s operas as Zachary in Nabucco, Ferrando in Troubadour, Grand Inquisitor in the opera Don Carlos and Tom in the Masquerade Ball. In Donizetti’s operas The Drink of Love, he played Dulcamara, Sulpice in The Daughter of the Regiment and Don Alfonso in Lucrezia Borgia. He was as int
erested as Pimen and Boris Godunov in Mussorgsky’s work Boris Godunov and Kecal in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Sarastro in W. A. Mozart’s Magic Flute and an impressive performance as Mephisto in the opera Ch. Gounoda Faust. From the domestic stages, he is a guest at the Banská Bystrica Music Days, an international music festival of the Castle Games of Zvolen. In the summer of 2009, he performed as Vodník in the production of Rusalka within the 18th International Music Festival in Český Krumlov in an amphitheater with a revolving auditorium. In 2011, he successfully performed at a concert performance of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride at the Barbican Hall in London in the role of Kecal with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Czech conductor Jiří Bělohlávek. Harmonia Mundi has prepared a CD recording of this performance. In February 2012, together with conductor J. Bělohlávek, he also made a radio recording of A. Dvořák’s opera Jakobín in the role of Purkrabí for the BBC. Jozef Benci is also intensively involved in concert activities. He has given concerts at home and on stages in the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, France, Romania, Italy, Austria, Poland, Germany, etc. at this festival he also performed in a concert performance of Donizetti’s opera Lucrezia Borgia. With conductor legend Nella Santim, he staged the bass part of the famous Verdi’s Requiem, included in the SND Opera program for Easter 2012.
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