Dream Horse

Did you know about the new box office hit, 'Dream Horse', has a Prebendal connection?

Benjamin Woodgates came to Prebendal as a chorister in 1995, where he learnt piano and bassoon, adding percussion when he discovered that one of the Lay Vicars was a percussionist!

He now lives in London working as a composer and arranger. Among other things he has written for St Paul's Cathedral, music for video games, and TV adverts. His first major film 'Dream Horse' is in cinemas now, and is based on a true story.

After Prebendal, he then moved on to Winchester College on a music scholarship, where he continued his studies. Although he eventually became principal bassoon with the Hampshire Youth Orchestra, percussion took a firm hold, and he won the Music at Beaulieu award on marimba in 2004, and in 2005 became the youngest player to perform James Macmillan's 'Veni, Veni Emmanuel' concerto, with the college orchestra.

Despite this he was set on a career in the Sciences, and secured a place at Corpus Christi Oxford for Physics. It was while he was there for interview that he decided music was too strong a pull, and he ended up reading music at Corpus, and also as organ scholar.

After a double first in Music he took a year off, half the time earning some money and the other half spending it touring South America! On returning home he took a postgraduate degree in screen composition at the Royal College of Music.