Benjamin Vickers is a cellist in the El Paso Symphony Orchestra, and is staff conductor of the El Paso Symphony Youth Orchestras. He is also a member of the faculty at the El Paso Conservatory of Music, teaching cello and music theory. Mr. Vickers has been guest conductor of the Ysleta Independent School District Honor Orchestra, and is also a founding member of the Mesa St. Trio, with violinist Lesley Chen and pianist Oscar Macchioni. A native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Benjamin Vickers holds the Bachelor of Music degree from the University of New Mexico; the Master of Music degree from Arizona State University; and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in conducting from the University of Michigan. Mr. Vickers was conductor of the Campus Symphony Orchestra at the University of Michigan, and has conducted the University of Michigan Symphony Orchestra in several concert appearances, including in public masterclasses with conductors Lorin Maazel and Helmuth Rilling. He has served as assistant conductor for the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, and also served as conducting assistant for the University of Michigan orchestras and as assistant conductor for the university’s productions of Così fan tutte and the The Dreamy Kid, a one-act blues opera by James P. Johnson. Mr. Vickers has been selected to participate in several conducting workshops, including those of the American Symphony Orchestra League, Conductors Guild, International Conducting Workshop and Festival, Brevard Music Center, as well as the Conductors Retreat at Medomak. As a cellist, he has performed with the Santa Fe and Roswell Symphony Orchestras in New Mexico; collaborated in performances of the works of George Crumb with the composer in attendance; and played in the pit for Ballet Arizona and the Bolshoi Ballet on a U.S. tour in Phoenix, Arizona. Mr Vickers was featured as continuo player in several scenes from Monteverdi’s opera The Coronation of Poppea, presented at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D. C. by the University of Michigan; He performed on the University of Michigan’s multiple-Grammy winning recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience, conducted by Leonard Slatkin.