The Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus is delighted to welcome Dr. Ben Riggs as our new Artistic Director.

Ben officially joined the Oakland Gay Men’s Chorus as Artistic Director in August 2019.

After a brief summer break, OGMC returned on September 3rd to our rehearsal schedule for the holiday concerts. Ben treated the chorus to a very organized session peppered with lots of valuable tips and good humor and we were excited to see how far we came with our repertoire in only one rehearsal and look forward to delivering a great concert series.

Ben is also the Artistic Director of Resound Ensemble, a chamber chorus of volunteer mixed voices based in San Francisco. Prior to moving to the Bay Area, Ben was the full-time Artistic Director of Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus, a 160-member volunteer arts organization in Minneapolis, MN.

Ben was previously the Artistic Director of the Denver Gay Men’s Chorus and served two terms on the Board of Directors of GALA Choruses, an international association of LGBT Choruses.

An experienced church musician, Ben currently serves as the Minister of Music at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Oakland and teaches Church Music & Liturgical Singing at Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley.

He 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.

Originally from West Virginia, Ben now lives in Berkeley with his husband, The Rev. John F. Dwyer, and their 160-pound Bernese mountain dog, Lincoln.

We know that when you experience our sound and performance at our holiday concerts you will be as impressed as we are with our new director.