Musical Director - Ben Palmer
Ben Palmer is musical director of the Orchestra of St Paul's, the Bartholdy Chamber Orchestra and the Syred Sinfonia, and this season began a four-year tenure as conductor of Stamford Chamber Orchestra in Lincolnshire. 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. He recently made his debuts with the Wolsey Orchestra and Hertfordshire Philharmonia, and conducted Birmingham University Symphony at the CBSO Centre. Later this year he will conduct Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra for the first time, in a concert at St George’s Bristol.
Ben is in great demand as a choral conductor, and is musical director of acclaimed chamber choir The Syred Consort, Kingston Orpheus Choir and South West Essex Choir. In September 2010 he took up the position of musical director with Woking Choral Society in its 115th season. His opera work includes productions of Le nozze di Figaro,Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, Dido and Aeneas and Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. A trumpeter and composer by training, Ben studied music at the University of Birmingham, graduating with first class honours in 2003. He stayed on at Birmingham to complete an MPhil in composition with Vic Hoyland, before moving to London in 2005 to study at the Royal Academy of Music with Simon Bainbridge. Ben has conducted orchestral concerts throughout the UK and in China, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and the Seychelles; in 2010 he made his debut at the Royal Albert Hall.
With the Orchestra of St Paul's (OSP) Ben makes annual visits to Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room and St John’s, Smith Square, and performs regularly at venues and festivals around the UK. OSP is resident at the famous Actors' Church in Covent Garden, and runs a thriving concert series in its home venue. The orchestra is Ensemble-in-Residence at the prestigious University College School in Hampstead. Performances in 2011 include Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 at St John's, Smith Square, Mahler songs with Roderick Williams, Messiah on Good Friday, Constant Lambert's Piano Concerto with David Owen Norris at the English Music Festival, performances of Pierrot lunaireand Façade in Birmingham, and Copland's complete ballet score for Appalachian Spring at the Purcell Room.
Other plans for 2011 include a disc of part songs with The Syred Consort (on the English Music Festival's label EM Records), Haydn’s The Creation at Walthamstow Assembly Hall and a new production of Die Fledermaus with OSP. It is Ben’s lifetime ambition to conduct all the Haydn symphonies.
Ben Palmer is musical director of the Orchestra of St Paul's, the Bartholdy Chamber Orchestra and the Syred Sinfonia, and this season began a four-year tenure as conductor of Stamford Chamber Orchestra in Lincolnshire. 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. He recently made his debuts with the Wolsey Orchestra and Hertfordshire Philharmonia, and conducted Birmingham University Symphony at the CBSO Centre. Later this year he will conduct Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra for the first time, in a concert at St George’s Bristol.