Prof. Detlef Bensmann studied saxophone with Prof. Omar Lamparter and double bass with Prof. Heinz Jablonski in Berlin. After playing double bass in the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin (1979/80), he began his career as a saxophone soloist with a debut concert in the Berlin Philharmonie with the Radio Symphonie Orchestra Berlin (DSO) and a first recording of concerts for saxophone and orchestra ( 1980). Mr. Bensmann's twenty commercial recordings of important works include pieces composed for Detlef Bensmann and others by Detlef Bensmann. He regularly performs internationally with world-class orchestras and well-known conductors, such as Dmitrij Kitajenko with the Berner Symphoniker, the Radio Symphonie Orchestra Frankfurt (HR) and Kazushi Ono, Sian Edwards, Eiji Oue, Tetsuro Ban, David Shallon and Michael Dixon, Golo Berg , Neil Thompson, Jorge Lopez Marìn (Cuba), Olaf Koch and others.

More than 25 concerts for saxophone and orchestra were composed (mostly recorded) especially for Detlef Bensmann and he has premiered more than 100 compositions for chamber ensembles or solo pieces; Most of them are documented on almost 50 CDs.

In 1983, Mr. Bensmann founded the Berlin Saxophone Quartet, where he performed as the first soloist of this ensemble until July 2007. He continued to play saxophone quartets with the “Bensmann Saxophone Quartet”, which he founded in 2006 with students from his master class. In 2017, Mr. Bensmann founded the Nova Berlin Saxophone Quartet in Shenzhen (China) together with Pei Yin, Lilly Paddags and Ninoslav Dimov. In 2018 he re-founded the Bensmann Saxophone Quartet in Berlin with Tianhong Wu, Pai Liu and Ninoslav Dimov.

In 1984 Mr. Bensmann started teaching at the University of the Arts in Berlin. Since 1992 he has also been teaching at the Hanns Eisler University of Music in Berlin and from summer 2010 to summer 2016 at the HMT Rostock. Since winter 2016 he has also been teaching at the Akademie für Kunst Berlin and since October 2018 at the Akademie für Musik Berlin (Kaleidos Universtiy).

In 2004 Mr. Bensmann founded the BENSMANN-TRIO with Waltraut Wächter (violin - first concertmaster of the MDR SO) and the pianist Dmitrij Befeler. (first commercial CD “Poèmes”). This trio is still working with various partners.

Over the past 20 years, Mr. Bensmann has also pursued a career as a conductor and composer.

The most important works by Detlef Bensmann are:

"Spirale" for saxophone alto and full orchestra (1)

"Fantasia cubana" for saxophone alto / soprano (1 player) and chamber orchestra (1)

"Hallo Mr. SaxOphon" for 5 saxophones (one player) and orchestra (for family programs) (1)

"Hot-Sonata" by Erwin Schulhoff / Detlef Bensmann (orchestration 1993 (2), 2014 (1))

"Moorish Rhapsody" by Claude Debussy / Detlef Bensmann (reconstruction, arrangement, orchestration, newly composed in small parts) for alto / soprano saxophone and orchestra (1)

"An American songbook" for singers and orchestra (1)

"Traumsequenzen" for violin and saxophone alto (1)

"Where the light crosses the string - Poème after Claude Debussy" for viol., Alto saxophone, piano (1)

“Psalm and Meditation” for soprano, vcello, sax., Perc. and organ (manuscript)

“Magical Singing” for alto saxophone and organ or wind orchestra.

1 = Ed. Ries & Erler Berlin 2 = Ed. Bulkhead

Detlef Bensmann is officially supported by the Geothe-Institut