Dr. Ben Riggs
Music Director
Music Director
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Ben joined St. John’s as Minister of Music in 2018. In addition to directing St. John’s music program, he is Artistic Director of the Resound Ensemble, a San Francisco mixed voice chamber chorus, and is Adjunct Instructor of Church Music & Liturgical Singing at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley. Ben was most recently the full-time Artistic Director of Twin City Gay Men’s Chorus, a 160-member volunteer arts organization in Minneapolis, MN. He also served as the Artistic Director of both the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus and the Boulder Chorale, a 120-voice volunteer mixed chorus in Boulder, CO. Ben is a founding member of the Firesign Vocal Quartet, a Denver-based professional vocal quartet. Ben recorded two albums with Firesign: William Byrd & Terry Schlenker: Masses for Four Voices (2011) and Follow We This Joyful Birth (2012). While in Minnesota, Ben performed with The Singers – Minnesota Chorale Artists, a professional choral ensemble under the direction of Matthew Culloton.
Ben holds a Bachelor of Music in piano from Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, a Master of Music in choral conducting from the University of Colorado-Boulder, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Choral Literature and Performance from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Ben lives in Berkeley, CA, with his husband, the Rev. John F. Dwyer, and their 160-pound Bernese mountain dog, Lincoln. |
