Musical Director Ben Holder Represented by Air-Edel
Air-Edel is excited to share that we now represent Musical Director Ben Holder.
Ben hails from Warrington in Northwest England. He studied music at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, where he was a repetiteur scholar with New Chamber Opera. Thereafter, he studied piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music under Michael Dussek. He is currently on-set Music Associate for ‘Wicked Part 1 (2024)’ and Part 2 (2025), directed by Jon M. Chu; and Disney’s ‘Snow White (2024)’, directed by Marc Webb.
Upon graduating, he spent 2013 as the first Associate Musical Director at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, supported by the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation. In 2014 he was associate MD for Channel 4’s acclaimed ‘Our Gay Wedding: The Musical’, conducting the pre-recording sessions and playing live piano for the ceremony. In 2015 he arranged and musically directed Patrick Doyle’s music for ‘The Entertainer’ (2016) at the Garrick Theatre with Kenneth Branagh, which was live-streamed to cinemas worldwide.
He has been musical director for UK tours of ‘Crazy For You’ (2017) and ‘Everybody’s Talking About Jamie’ (2020/21), and was assistant MD on ‘Bat Out Of Hell (2018), where he conducted with Meat Loaf in attendance. He is currently a cover musical director for London stage productions of ‘Moulin Rouge’ (2021) and ‘Back to the Future’ (2021). He has also played keyboards on ‘& Juliet’ (2023), ‘The Book of Mormon’ (2019), ‘Jersey Boys’ (2016), ‘Les Misérables’ (2019), ‘Funny Girl’ (2019), and ‘The Bodyguard’ (2015/16), among others.
Also known in London for his brilliant sight-reading in a multitude of styles, Ben has acted as accompanist for a range of audition processes for films, West End shows, operas, singing competitions, examinations, and college admissions.
As a coach he works with actors hugely diverse in musical background and experience, and has a proven track record in instilling confidence at every stage, from auditioning through to singing/playing on-camera. For film he is a nimble and sympathetic on-set pianist, and an inspiring and engaging animateur of songs for huge ensembles of dancers and supporting artists – many of whom “enjoyed singing for the first time!” after their days on set with him.
