Biography

Ben Palmer is increasingly gaining recognition as an inspiring and versatile conductor. He is acclaimed for his innovative and imaginative programming, in particular with the Orchestra of St Paul's, a dynamic professional chamber orchestra based in Covent Garden, of which he is musical director. He is assistant conductor to Sir Roger Norrington; throughout the 2011/12 season he will work with him on concerts and recordings with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra. He will make his debut with the London Mozart Players in December 2012; other orchestras he has conducted include Britten Sinfonia and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. He appears regularly at the Southbank Centre and St John’s, Smith Square; in 2010 he made his debut at the Royal Albert Hall.

Ben Palmer has worked with some of the UK’s leading soloists, including the baritone Roderick Williams, pianists Steven Osborne, David Owen Norris and Alexandra Dariescu, clarinetist David Campbell and violinist Thomas Gould. He has conducted orchestral concerts throughout the UK and in China, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland and the Seychelles. His opera work includes staged productions of Le nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, Die Zauberflöte, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Dido and Aeneas and Die Fledermaus.

2012 will see performances with the Orchestra of St Paul's at the Purcell Room, St John’s, Smith Square, LSO St Luke’s and the English Music Festival, the latter including the concert performance world première of Ben’s edition of Elgar’s incidental music to Arthur. Guest conducting engagements include re-invitations to Birmingham University Symphony Orchestra (Stravinsky Symphony in C) and the Wolsey Orchestra. Ben is regularly invited to work with some of the UK’s finest amateur orchestras, including Stamford Chamber Orchestra, of which he is musical director, Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra and Forest Philharmonic Orchestra.

Ben is in great demand as a choral conductor, and is musical director of acclaimed chamber choir The Syred Consort, and Woking Choral Society, one of the UK’s foremost amateur choruses. Recent repertoire includes Verdi Requiem, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Handel’s Israel in Egypt and Bach’s St John Passion, Christmas Oratorio and Mass in B minor. Forthcoming performances include Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Haydn’s The Seasons and Berlioz Messe solennelle.

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. Plans for 2013 include his debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall and returns to Purcell Room and St John’s, Smith Square. It is Ben’s lifetime ambition to conduct all the Haydn symphonies.