Ben Palmer

British conductor Ben Palmer has been especially well known for work in films, often conducting silent and sound film scores live. With a varied background, he has been noted for creative programming with the various orchestras he has conducted. Palmer was born in Denmark in 1982. He attended the University of Birmingham, studying trumpet and composition. Palmer graduated in 2003 with top honors and went on for a master's degree in composition. He continued as a composition student at the Royal Academy of Music and continues to be in demand as a composer, but his turn toward conducting began in 2007 when he founded his own group, the Orchestra of St Paul's. He continued to lead that group through its name change to the Covent Garden Sinfonia in 2017. Another part of Palmer's creative growth came as he served as assistant conductor under Bernard Haitink and Sir Roger Norrington. Since 2013 he has been active as a film music conductor, often performing live with film showings. He has a large repertory of popular film scores, including those for the Star Wars trilogy, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Back to the Future, as well as the silent films The Gold Rush (Charlie Chaplin), Metropolis (Fritz Lang), and the children's film The Snowman. As an orchestral conductor he has led performances by the NDR Radiophilharmonie in Germany, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, among many others. In 2017 Palmer was appointed chief conductor of the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck, and the following year he began an extended stint as a film music conductor with the Czech National Philharmonic Orchestra. He has conducted the Orchestra of St Paul's/Covent Garden Sinfonia on recordings for the Somm, Delphian, and Rubicon Classics labels, issuing Max Richter: The Four Seasons Recomposed with violinist Fenella Humphreys in 2019. ~ James Manheim