Conducting Bio
Called "feisty" and "impressive" by the LA Times, Ben Phelps lives in Los Angeles, where he is a conductor, percussionist, and composer. Phelps is a leading conductor of film music and live-to-film orchestral projects, and has performed and lead such orchestras as the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra in Bilbao, Spain, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Sacramento Philharmonic & Opera, Reno Philharmonic, Regina Symphony Orchestra, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, and many more.
For the past ten years he has toured the world as an assistant conductor to Lord of the Rings Live, one of the first and most long running live-to-film concert experiences. As assistant conductor with the project he has worked with many of the world’s great orchestras and music festivals, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Orquesta Nacional de España, and the Müncher Sÿmphoniker. Recently as conductor of the Lord of the Rings Phelps lead a complete performance of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy featuring all three movies over three nights with La Orquesta Sinfónica del Vallès in Madrid, Spain, and three sold out performances of The Fellowship of the Ring at the Grand Théâtre de Québec in Quebec City. He currently is touring with Harry Potter Live in Concert across the United States and Canada, and is conducting such other projects as the holiday Elf Live in Concert at the Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando, Florida and the music of Nino Rota in the Godfather Live in Concert with the Flint Symphony Orchestra.
As an orchestrator his orchestration and reduction of Nino Rota’s ballet La Strada has been in repertoire at Munich’s Staatstheater am Gârtnerplatz, and in 2024 his arrangement was used in a production of the ballet at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre.
Phelps is also an accomplished percussionist and composer, and leader in Southern California’s contemporary music scene. In conjunction with What’s Next? Ensemble, he founded and lead the Los Angeles Composers Project, which over the course of six years presented and championed the new works of over 100 local composers, fostering a thriving modern-music community in the city of Los Angeles. As a composer his music has been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Talujon, pianist Vicki Ray, Argus String Quartet, What’s Next? Ensemble, and has been heard frequently at venues across the West Coast and around the world, such as the Carlsbad Music Festival, REDCat at Walt Disney Concert Hall, Piano Spheres, SPLICE Music Festival, and Festival deciBels (Riga, Latvia). Previously, his work with the pioneering theater company Rogue Artists Ensemble was been called "enchanting" by the LAWeekly and "sonically brilliant" by the OCWeekly.
As a percussionist focusing on the performance of modern contemporary classical music and the avant-garde, he has worked and performed with many of the leading composers of our time. He has been seen performing across Southern California and the country, at venues such as the Ojai Music Festival, Zankel Hall in New York, the Bang On A Can Summer Festival at MassMOCA, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Green Umbrella concert series, and Tuesday’s @ Monk Space in Los Angeles. He also performs regularly with Southern California orchestras and as a studio recording musician in Los Angeles.
Current composer / performer projects include The B Band, a classical band, which recently released Mahler, Symphony no. 5 by Ben Phelps on Cereal Music (“The results are really something else … It’s like Mahler daydreaming of himself” -George Grella). He holds degrees in music Composition from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California.
