Biography

Ben Woodward was the founding Music & Artistic Director of Fulham Opera in 2010, which became Regents Opera in 2020. For the company he has conducted, often from his own orchestral arrangements, many major works; and in 2025, gave two complete Ring Cycles in York Hall, Bethnal Green to critical acclaim.

 “This scaling down to twenty-two-piece orchestra (on the stage above) does a splendid job in situ of conveying more than one would ever have thought possible, very much of a piece with the intense, intimate theatricality of the staging. Ben Woodward’s conducting does likewise, as does the instrumentalists’ playing.”                                    Mark Berry, Seen and Heard

 He recently conducted performances of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony and Strauss Eine Alpensinfonie in London.

 With Regents Opera he has conducted performances of six Verdi operas, the complete Mozart/Da Ponte trilogy, Strauss' Die Ägyptische Helena, Carmen, La Bohème, Tosca, Die Meistersinger and Der fliegende Holländer.

 He has worked extensively in Germany, conducting Barber’s Vanessa for Theater Orchester Neubrandenburg Neustrelitz, and Der fliegende Holländer, Singin’ in the Rain & Guys and Dolls at the SH-Landestheater in Flensburg (performances cancelled by COVID-19 also include Don Giovanni and der Vogelhändler), and working on the music staff at Hannover Staatsoper and the MiR Gelsenkirchen.

 In 2022 and 2025 he was assistant conductor on Il Trovatore at the Royal Ballet and Opera.

 With Regents Opera workshops orchestra, he has led a semi pro/amateur orchestra through seven Strauss operas, les Dialogues des Carmélites, Jenufa, The Makropulos Case, die Tote Stadt, das Wunder der Heliane, Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, Peter Grimes, the Lyrische Sinfonie of Zemlinsky, Tippett's Midsummer Marriage, Wozzeck and also the complete Ring Cycle.

 He has recorded a CD of scenes of Richard Wagner, in his own 18-piece arrangements.  

He has recorded the complete choral works of Robert Mansell.

 He has been a chorus master/choir trainer for Opera de Baugé, Wokingham Choral Society, and twice won Best Choir with Buckland & Betchworth Choral Society at the Leith Hill Festival.  He has also ran choirs for Fidelity Investments and the News Corporation.

 He was on the Opera Course at GSMD, was organ scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge, where for a term, he was acting Director of Music, and a student at Chetham's School of Music.

 Next up are performances of Salome (dir. Mark Ravenhill) and Parsifal (dir. David Pountney) with Regents Opera, the Britten War Requiem and Elektra with New Palace Opera, as well as orchestral workshops of Rusalka, From the House of the Dead and Tosca.

 He lives in Berlin, where he keeps a thriving opera coaching studio and is also on the coaching faculty at Berlin Opera Academy.  He lives with his wife, soprano Catharine Woodward, and their cat, Kira.