BENJAMIN NIEMCZYK made his conducting debut with the Civic Orchestra of the Chicago Symphony in 1999. Since that time, he has collected a catalog of styles that includes chant, music of the liturgy, choral-symphonic works, theatre pieces, performance art, electronica and a capella works spanning centuries. A singer by trade, he has sung with some of the finest ensembles in both Chicago and New York, has appeared on multiple television broadcasts and commercial audio recordings and has sung in most major venues in the New York area. In 2004, he made his European debut in the south of France with the Festival of American Music. Not too long after that, he made his Town Hall debut conducting the NYC premier of pieces by Buffalo-based composer Ronald Martin. A loyal proponent of new music, Benjamin studied conducting under contemporary music guru Cliff Colnot of the Chicago Symphony and Harold Rosenbaum of the New York Virtuoso Singers. His musical pursuits are matched by a love for visual art, particularly photography. His award-winning pieces have appeared in The New York Times, Time Out New York and The New Yorker. He also runs BDN Design, a small organization devoted to both commercial and pure artistic pursuits in the realms of photography and graphic design. He holds degrees from the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music and the DePaul University School of Music.