Ben Palmer is Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Philharmonie Merck in Darmstadt (2017-24) and Babylon Orchester Berlin, Principal Conductor of the Orchestra da Camera di Pordenone, and Founder and Artistic Director of Covent Garden Sinfonia.

The 2023/24 season includes debuts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia, and returns to the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Arctic Philharmonic, Hallé, Hofer Symphoniker, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia and Royal Scottish National Orchestra. Recent guest conducting engagements include Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms (televised on BBC Two), Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg, Heidelberger Sinfoniker, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Manchester Camerata, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Sinfonietta Riga and Zurich Chamber Orchestra, and recordings with the City of Prague Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, and for 20th Century Fox, Hans Zimmer, and Bleeding Fingers Music, with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He can often be heard on BBC radio and television conducting the BBC Singers and the BBC Orchestras.

Personally authorised by John Williams to conduct his film scores in concert, and acclaimed by Hans Zimmer as “a masterclass in conducting”, Ben Palmer is one of the world’s most sought-after specialists in conducting live to picture. With a repertoire of more than 50 films, ranging from fiendishly difficult silent movies such as Metropolis and Modern Times to the Star Wars films and Harry Potter, he appears regularly at venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, KKL Luzern and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam.

A trumpeter and composer by training, he studied at the University of Birmingham and the Royal Academy of Music, which elected him an Associate in 2017. He continues to be in great demand as a composer, arranger and orchestrator, most notably for Sony Classical. Recent commissions include Urban Fox (a companion piece for The Rite of Spring) for Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra, arrangements for violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing’s Opus Klassik-winning album Arctic, an orchestration of Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps for the Hallé, and the Fitbit Stress Symphony, viewed more than 7.5M times on YouTube. From 2011-16 he worked as assistant conductor to Sir Roger Norrington, and twice acted as rehearsal conductor for Bernard Haitink. He is more than three quarters of the way through his lifetime ambition to conduct all 107 of the Haydn symphonies.