about

Benjamin Nilles is the quintessential 21st-Century American conductor: A champion of new music that brings cinematic soundtracks, orchestral masterworks, and opera scores to life. Appointed in 2016, he is currently the Artistic Director & Conductor of the Mesabi Symphony Orchestra in Minnesota.

As the artistic leader of the Mesabi Symphony Orchestra, Nilles has been committed to ensuring the orchestra maintains active outreach to the communities in which it performs and facilitating a myriad of collaborations every season. Young Artist Competition winners performing with the orchestra, orchestra musicians performing and teaching in public schools, and collaborations with local, regional, and national soloists and organizations are mainstays of the MSO.

Previously, Benjamin served on the faculty at Oklahoma City University and was Music Director & Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra. Appointed in 2010, he became one of the youngest conductors to lead a major university orchestra at age 28. He had previously held Assistant Conductor and Associate Conductor posts with the same orchestra. In addition, Benjamin served on faculty as Interim Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra at the University of Minnesota-Duluth in 2017-2018 and Spring 2020.

From the podium of the award-winning Oklahoma City University Symphony Orchestra, Nilles displayed a virtuosic versatility: conducting multimedia spectacles for full orchestra; leading the first live-streaming concerts of symphonic masterworks from the Petree Recital Hall stage; conducting the Oklahoma Opera & Music Theater Company's production of Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, winner of the National Opera Association's Opera Production Competition; and recording the 80-minute soundtrack of the historic 1920 movie Daughter of Dawn, selected in 2013 for the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

During his tenure with the OCU Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra reached new heights of ability and became an important fixture in the community and region. The orchestra, routinely asked to be the centerpiece of important historical galas and events, garnered high praise with each performance under Nilles. As a leader and faculty member at Oklahoma City University, he was dedicated to education and sharing his passion of music, cultivating the highest level of musicianship from the orchestra and students in the classroom.

Nilles has been a mainstay in the recording studio setting. He has led studio orchestras for commercial recordings, including the title track for singer Bryan White's album Dustbowl Dreams, and full orchestras for soundtracks and premieres. He has also led orchestras for live-concert releases on CD and DVD.

His most recent major event was conducting the world premiere of René Clausen’s Mesabi: The Sleeping Giant for orchestra and choir in Spring 2023. Nilles led over 125 musicians for the premiere in front of a 950-person full-house audience for the farewell of Virginia’s Goodman Auditorium. Other major recent events have included a collaboration in 2019 between the Mesabi Symphony Orchestra and Range of Voices Chorus for performances of Mozart’s Requiem; a collaboration in 2018 with the University of Wisconsin-Superior Orchestra & Choruses and the Mesabi Symphony Orchestra to present an all-Bernstein concert for the Leonard Bernstein Centennial Celebration; and in 2015, a gala premiere and recording of the 40-minute, five-movement orchestral suite Windows to the West. Written in commemoration of the golden anniversary of the National Western Heritage Museum and Cowboy Hall of Fame, the work’s composer, Edward Knight, praised Nilles’ nuance, artistry and collaborative skills, calling him “a sensitive, charismatic conductor with an exceptional mind, a keen ear, and effortless technical abilities.”

Nilles earned his Bachelor of Music degree in Horn Performance from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and his Master of Music degree in Conducting from Oklahoma City University. He has studied conducting with Bruce Houglum, Mark Parker and Mark Belcik, and has worked with conductors Diane Wittry, Dennis Keene, Sergiu Comissiona and Bernard Rubenstein.