Ben Foster (orchestrator)

Ben Foster
Foster at the 2008 Doctor Who Prom.
Background information
Birth name	Benedict Foster
Occupation(s)	Composer, orchestrator and conductor

Ben Foster is a Bafta award-winning British composer, best known for his work on the BBC series Torchwood, and as orchestrator for Murray Gold on Doctor Who, and for Marc Streitenfeld on Prometheus and The Grey. He is also known as the conductor for Peter Gabriel's Scratch my Back world tour and albums, and for the BBC Proms Doctor Who events.

Foster studied Composition and Conducting at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, graduating in 2000. He was awarded the Lutosławski composition prize. He is a graduate of the National Film and Television School, where he studied with Francis Shaw and Peter Howell (the latter having composed for the BBC series Doctor Who, with which Foster would also become associated later on).

Since November 2005, Foster has worked as arranger and conductor for composer Murray Gold on Doctor Who. He also conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in Doctor Who: A Celebration, which was held at the Wales Millennium Centre on 19 November 2006 in aid of Children in Need. The concert was followed by the release of the first Doctor Who Soundtrack CD which includes music from series 1 and 2 of the programme. This was released on 11 December 2006 on Silva Screen Records.

On 5 November 2007, Silva Screen Records released The Soundtrack from Series 3. On 17 November 2008, The Soundtrack from Series 4, followed 10 days later by the broadcast of the first Doctor Who Prom. Foster arranged the music and conducted the BBC Philharmonic at this event, which was part of The Proms. On 24 and 25 July 2010, Foster again arranged and conducted Murray Gold's scores from Seasons 4+5 in the Doctor Who Proms, an event followed by the release of The Doctor Who 2008–2010 specials soundtrack on 4 October, and the Series 5 soundtrack on 8 November. March 2011 saw the release of the soundtrack for the 2010 Christmas special, A Christmas Carol, and on 19 December of that year, the soundtrack for Series 6 was released. Foster arranged and conducted Gold's music from Series 6 and 7, as well as some music from the classic (1963–89) years by Tristram Cary, Martin Slavin, Malcolm Clarke, Dudley Simpson, Paddy Kingsland, Peter Howell and Mark Ayres, for the third Doctor Who prom, performed at the Royal Albert Hall in August 2013, which was followed by the soundtrack releases for the seventh series and the 2011 and 2012 Christmas specials, on 9 September and 21 October respectively.