Ben Bernstein is composer, coach, and opera director. He is also a performer, currently working on a one-man stage show titled “Mein Gantze Megillla” (“My Big Story”). He is a graduate of the Mills College music program, where he received an M.A. in Music Composition.

Following his graduation from Mills, his original settings for a new translation of the Old Testament’s Song of Songs, were awarded a special recognition by the American Society of Jewish Music, and he received four separate commissions for new work from major professional choral groups.

His original one-act opera, “The Man in the Mirror,” was chosen to be on the program for the international American Handel Festival, where it was “a big draw for the entire Festival” (Marty Ronish, Festival producer). Bernstein is currently working on a suite of four additional one-acts, each devoted to a different soloist of Handel’s Messiah. He has also composed and performed a selection for nine original songs under the title of “Hot Songs for Cold Times,” as he continues to expand the opus of The Song of Songs.

Bernstein is the Founder and Artistic Director of The Singer’s Gym, a Bay Area-based non-profit, which has the mission of fostering the joy of singing in everyone. The Singer’s Gym has recently been awarded two major grants to develop programs for community-based singing projects.

In Dr. B’s day job, he is a performance psychologist working with high-level stage performers (opera singers, instrumentalists, bands) to deepen their connection to what they are singing or playing. These include his youngest brother Richard Bernstein, on stage for the last 29 years at the Metropolitan Opera, and his sister, Didi Conn, who played the role of Frenchy in the iconic motion picture, “Grease.”