Biography
"Two premieres rose above the crowd for me this year...the first, an exquisitely crafted setting of the late medieval Corpus Christi Carol, stepped into the world in November with an accomplished performance from the Syred Consort under Ben Palmer."
Andrew Stewart, Classical Music Magazine December 2007
"Guest conductor Ben Palmer made a favourable impression, not least for the way in which he faced up to the challenge of the Abbey's acoustics in that most Romantic of works, Tchaikovsky's Pathétique Symphony… This was a performance of great conviction."
Roger Jones, Gloucestershire Echo October 2007
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. In early August the orchestra gave the final concert of the 2008 Budleigh Salterton Festival in Devon; a staged production of Stravinsky's The Soldier's Tale (with the Cygnet Theatre Company) and Walton's Façade with celebrity reciters Richard Baker and Katie Derham. This sell-out performance to an audience of 400 people resulted in an immediate invitation to the 2009 Festival. Later that month OSP travelled to Framlingham in Suffolk for a staged performance of Die Zauberflöte for the Pimlott Foundation. In September OSP makes its Southbank Centre debut at Purcell Room with a concert of Martinů's La revue de cuisine, Britten's Cabaret Songs and Walton's Façade (recited by Edith Sitwell's great-nephew William). In early October the orchestra has been invited to give yet another performance of Façade, this time in Scarborough in North Yorkshire. The performance celebrates the opening of a new gallery at Woodend, the former home of the Sitwell family in Scarborough, by Crescent Arts. OSP's 2007/08 season included 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.
Ben Palmer's 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, a two-week tour of China as Assistant Conductor to the Amadeus Orchestra (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) and The Soldier’s Tale in St James’s, Piccadilly. Plans for 2008 include 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, a programme of Tallis, Sheppard and MacMillan with The Syred Consort and choral works by Beethoven and Hummel. Concerts in 2009 include Dumbarton Oaks, Britten Sinfonietta Op.1 and Appalachian Spring with the Syred Sinfonia, Handel's Messiah, an invitation to conduct Stanford Chamber Orchestra in Lincolnshire, Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Thomas Gould, a complete performance of Bach's Christmas Oratorio with The Syred Consort and a semi-staged production of Così fan tutte with OSP.
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), Angela Barnes (horn) and George von Bergen (baritone). 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.
|
