Christian Benda is a Czech cellist, composer and conductor, descended from the eighteenth-century Benda family of composers. He performs worldwide both as a soloist and a conductor.His numerous recordings include many classical standards (notably, particularly distinguished performances of Boccherini cello sonatas, with his brother accompanying on the fortepiano, for the Naxos label) as well as the compositions of his ancestors Georg Anton (Jiří Antonín) Benda, František Benda and Jan Jiří Benda.(Another ancestor of his was the conductor Hans von Benda, who was particularly active between the 1930s and the 1950s.) He serves as chief Conductor and artistic director of the Prague Sinfonia.