Musical Director - Ben Palmer

Ben Palmer is Musical Director of the Orchestra of St Paul’s, the Syred Sinfonia and the Bartholdy Chamber Orchestra. He is also in great demand as a choral conductor and is Musical Director of South West Essex Choir, Kingston Orpheus Choir and acclaimed chamber choir The Syred Consort. He has conducted Britten Sinfonia and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and is regularly invited to work with some of the UK’s finest amateur orchestras including the Sinfonia of Cambridge, Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra, Forest Philharmonic Orchestra, Haydn Chamber Orchestra, Oxford Sinfonia and Suffolk Sinfonia.

He made his Purcell Room debut with the Orchestra of St Paul’s (OSP) in September 2008, and will return there in October 2009. The programme will include Erwin Stein’s chamber version of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, featuring soprano Katherine Broderick, winner of the 2007 Kathleen Ferrier Award. Resident at the Actors' Church in Covent Garden, OSP brings together some of the finest young professional musicians in London. In addition to a thriving concert series in Covent Garden, OSP gives regular performances at festivals and other venues around the UK, and is Ensemble-in-Residence at the prestigious University College School in Hampstead. Recent repertoire includes Walton’s Façade, Stravinsky The Soldier’s Tale, semi-staged performances of Die Zauberflöte and Così fan tutte, and the continuation of the orchestra's cycle of the nine Beethoven symphonies.

With The Syred Consort, Ben Palmer has conducted world premières of Graham Ross' A Voice from Afar and Malcolm Hayes' Corpus Christi, the latter recently published by Faber Music. In January 2009 they performed J. S. Bach's Christmas Oratorio with the Consort's sister ensemble, the Syred Sinfonia, the first instalment in a cycle of the four large Bach sacred vocal works. He is a regular guest at Dartington International Summer School, having been invited to conduct music theatre works by New York composer Gerald Busby (including two world premières), and a staged production of Walton’s Façade recited by Edith Sitwell’s great-nephew William. He has conducted orchestral concerts throughout the UK and in China, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and the Seychelles.

Plans for 2009/10 include symphonies by Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Mahler, Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky, Bach St John Passion, Brahms Ein deutsches Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire, Verdi Requiem and his debut at the Royal Albert Hall.

Ben Palmer 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. His tour with the Amadeus Orchestra to China was generously supported by The Tillett Trust.
www.benpalmer.net