m u s i c a l_d i r e c t o r

Ben Palmer is Musical Director of OSP, Bartholdy Chamber Orchestra and the Manchester-based Sturm und Drang Chamber Orchestra. He is also in demand as a choral conductor and is Musical Director of Kingston Orpheus Choir, South West Essex Choir and The Syred Consort. This season with OSP he will conduct works by Mozart, Haydn, Dvořák, Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss and Wagner, as well as continuing their cycle of all nine Beethoven symphonies.

Highlights of 2007 included concerts with Sinfonia of Cambridge (Mahler Symphony No.1 and Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No. 3 with Matthew Trusler), Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra (Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 and Dvořák Cello Concerto with Oliver Coates in Tewkesbury Abbey), Walton's Façade in August 2007 for Dartington International Summer School (with William Sitwell, Edith's great-nephew, reciting), Stravinsky's The Soldier’s Tale and Cecilia McDowall's The Night Trumpeter in St James’, Piccadilly, and a sell-out performance of Beethoven Symphony No. 5 and Mozart Requiem with OSP and the choir Vox Cordis in Covent Garden.

He recently returned from a two-week tour of China as Assistant Conductor to the Amadeus Orchestra (with generous support from The Tillett Trust), which included a live televised New Year’s Day concert, and two performances in one of the world’s newest concert halls, the Shanghai Oriental Art Centre. In February he conducted the Syred Sinfonia at Gray's Inn Hall in a programme of music for strings, including Strauss's Metamorphosen, Britten's Serenade for tenor, horn and strings and Lachrymae. Plans for 2008 include The Dream of Gerontius with Forest Philharmonic Orchestra at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, a staged production of Die Zauberflöte for Pimlott Foundation Opera Series, Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition with Suffolk Sinfonia in St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet and Brahms Symphony No. 4 with Beccles Chamber Orchestra, and re-invitations to the Sinfonia of Cambridge (Haydn, Hummel and Beethoven at West Road Concert Hall) and Dartington International Summer School. The Orchestra of St Paul's make their professional debut in August, performing the final concert of the 2008 Budleigh Salterton Festival in Devon; The Soldier’s Tale and Façade, with celebrity reciters Richard Baker and Katie Derham.

He has worked with a number of outstanding soloists including Matthew Trusler (violin), Yuko Inoue (viola), Oliver Coates (cello), Louise Hayter (oboe), Heidi Sutcliffe (trumpet), Thomas Osborne (trumpet) and Angela Barnes (horn). Other ensembles he has conducted include Britten Sinfonia (as assistant to Edward Higginbottom), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (as assistant to Peter Wiegold), Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra (as rehearsal conductor for Alexander Shelley), Churchgate Sinfonia, Birmingham Symphonic Brass, Surrey Sinfonietta, Camden Chamber Orchestra, MoEns, Seychelles International Festival Orchestra, and the ensembles and choirs of Birmingham University. His opera experience includes performances of Le nozze di Figaro for Birmingham University Summer Festival Opera, and The Rake’s Progress and Die Zauberflöte for Dartington Festival Opera. He has conducted orchestral concerts throughout the UK and in Hungary, Germany, Poland, the Seychelles and China.

He graduated in 2003 with first class honours in music from the University of Birmingham, where he also completed an MPhil in composition with Vic Hoyland. In September 2005 he undertook a year’s study with Head of Composition Simon Bainbridge at the Royal Academy of Music. He has received bursaries and scholarships to study conducting with Diego Masson on the Advanced Conducting Course at Dartington International Summer School.