Biography

Ben Palmer is Musical Director of the Orchestra of St Paul’s and the Bartholdy 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.

Resident at the Actors' Church in Covent Garden, the Orchestra of St Paul's (OSP) brings together some of the finest young professional musicians in London. In addition to a thriving concert series in Covent Garden, OSP is increasingly in demand further afield. Recent performances include Martinů, Britten and Walton at Purcell Room, a staged production of Die Zauberflöte for the Pimlott Foundation in Suffolk, and concerts in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and at the Budleigh Salterton Festival in Devon, where the orchestra will return in 2009. OSP's 2007/08 season featured works by Mozart, Haydn, Dvořák, Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss, Stravinsky, Wagner and Walton, as well as the continuation of the orchestra's cycle of the nine Beethoven symphonies. The current season includes Bach Magnificat with the choir Vox Cordis, a semi-staged production of Così fan tutte, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Thomas Gould and Elgar Cello Concerto with Morwenna Del Mar.

With The Syred Consort, Ben Palmer has conducted world premières of Graham Ross's A Voice from Afar and Malcolm Hayes's Corpus Christi, recently published by Faber Music. Future plans include J S Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium BWV 248 with the Consort's sister ensemble, the Syred Sinfonia, and a four-concert tour in April 2009 taking in Wiveton in Norfolk, Bury St Edmunds, London and Exeter. His recent engagements include concerts with the Sinfonia of Cambridge, Cheltenham Symphony Orchestra (both re-invitations), Syred Sinfonia, The Dream of Gerontius with Forest Philharmonic Orchestra at Walthamstow Assembly Hall, Walton's Façade and two world premières by Gerald Busby at Dartington International Summer School, Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale in St James’s, Piccadilly, and a two-week tour of China as Assistant Conductor to the Amadeus Orchestra (which included a live televised New Year’s Day concert). Future plans include concerts with Suffolk Sinfonia (Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition), Haydn Chamber Orchestra (Mendelssohn, Haydn and Schumann), Syred Sinfonia (Dumbarton Oaks, Britten Sinfonietta Op. 1 and Appalachian Spring), Stamford Chamber Orchestra (Mozart, Schubert and Haydn), Handel's Messiah, Mozart’s Mass in C minor (in the completion by Robert Levin) and, in 2010, Verdi Requiem.

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 and the Seychelles International Festival Orchestra. 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. His tour with the Amadeus Orchestra to China was generously supported by The Tillett Trust.