MUSE • Musicians United for Social Equity

Biography

Ben Ginsberg is a Los Angeles-based pianist, music director, composer and teacher. He has worked across Southern California, Seattle and New York City, as a choral accompanist with the Gay Men’s and Trans Choruses of Los Angeles, the Ojai Community Chorus, the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus, the Los Angeles Choral Lab, Valencia High School, Newbury Park High School, Ventura High School, Singing In The Rain Family and Pacific Choirs of Seattle, and Voices of New York. He has sung and recorded with the Esoterics choral ensemble of Seattle, under Eric Banks.

He has worked with St. Max Kolbe Church of Westlake Village, Santa Clarita United Methodist Church, and the Metropolitan Synagogue of New York City, among many other houses of worship.

As a music director and accompanist, he has played for Center Theatre Group (Amélie, Grey Gardens, Zoot Suit), The Wallis Center for the Performing Arts, Beverly Hills (Merrily We Roll Along, Frankenstein, Headless, For the Record: Scorsese), 5 Star Theatricals, Thousand Oaks (Damn Yankees, Evita, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Sister Act, Children of Eden), Loyola Marymount University (Cabaret), Interlochen Summer Arts Camp (The Wiz), and California State University Channel Islands (In The Heights. alongside former LACHSA music director Dr. Cassie Nickols Gonzales). With the Santa Barbara Youth Ensemble Theatre he has music directed and performed twice for Oprah Winfrey. As a session keyboardist, he has recorded for ESPN commercials and as the piano double for the upcoming film The Ringmaster, directed by Maya Albanese.

He earned his B.F.A. in Piano from CalArts — where he gave the Wild Beast Music Pavilion concerto premiere with Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 2 — his M.A. (with distinction) in Music Industry Administration from California State University, Northridge, and his M.F.A. in Musical Theatre Composition from New York University’s Tisch School for the Arts. He composed for CITY OF HOPE (with Zoe Ray Prawda), RAMIN (with Thalia Ranjbar), and MINORU: Scrape the Sky (with Momo Akashi), which had its first live reading in New York on September 11, 2022. He also composed for VIEW FROM THE MOON (with Stacey Weingarten and Richard Holland) at the Academy for New Musicals (NMI) in North Hollywood. His original song “Heaven,” co-written and sung by George “Jorgie” Shkara, premiered on American Idol Season 17 in March 2019. In August 2021, his original song “Color of You” (lyrics by Jordan Toopes) was performed at The Composers’ Showcase in Las Vegas (produced by Keith Thompson). He is delighted to join the faculty of LACHSA and music direct the fall 2022 production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.