BIOGRAPHY
"My music is a genuine process of how I feel. The skill at which I'm able, or unable, to write melody or lyrics with substance and integrity is only the ability to express and successfully articulate what's really going on inside my head. I hope that when people listen to my music they can say, with confidence, that this is something I've achieved."
Benji Riggs is an Australian singer-songwriter, composer and storyteller. His work has appeared on both the local and international stage.
Riggs’ upbringing as performer meant that he had already played the Adelaide Festival Theatre stage multiple times as a child. In 2001, Riggs played as a child soloist with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. In 2010 Riggs won the Minister for Education Award and was a finalist for the same award in 2011. In 2015, Riggs was a finalist for the Pride of Australia Medal, Young Leader award. In 2016, Riggs was awarded Young Citizen of the Year during the Australia Day celebrations.
Riggs has performed internationally with a multitude of companies, including Snugglepot & Cuddlepie with Windmill (2007), Grandpa with Windmill and the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (2008), solo artist at Carols by Candlelight (2008), Turandot with The State Opera of South Australia (2008), Different Fields with Singular Productions and The State Opera of South Australia (2010), Voices for a Better World with the World Children’s Theatre Ensemble (2010), The Ugandan 50th year independence celebration with Kwaya and The African Children’s Choir (2012), Master Harold...and the boys (2014) and Long Days Journey Into Night (2015), both with Independent Theatre. In 2015, Riggs performed in BeMused for The Adelaide Cabaret Festival and went on to perform in Macbeth at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse (2016). Riggs then worked on the production of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018).
From 2017-2021, Riggs studied acting at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and attended the Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts, where he completed his Bachelor of Music.
Riggs has more recently found himself in the world of theatrical composition, having worked in the UK on Tony Harrison’s The Mysteries Part III: Doomsday (dir. Nick Bagnall) in 2019. Later that same year, Riggs wrote and directed Girl Inside, a children's musical that was performed to over 3000 school students around Adelaide. This led to the founding of his production company, The Flying Elephant Company. In 2021, he composed a series of classical movements for the internationally renowned Carducci String Quartet titled, Ode to Pa. In 2022, Riggs wrote and directed his second musical, The Boy with the Golden Fox, produced by The Flying Elephant Company. 2022 also saw Riggs work as composer and sound designer for Roots Theatre’s Blackbird (dir. Sasha Georgette and Nick Bagnall).