Since November 2005, Foster has worked as orchestrator 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.[3]
He also acted as Musical Director and Arranger for Doctor Who Live – which toured the UK in October – November 2010, conducting his 16-piece band.
Foster also composed music for the first three series of the BBC drama (and Doctor Who spin-off) Torchwood.[4]
His work on the show has earned him three nominations in the Best Music category at the 2006, 2007 and 2009 BAFTA Cymru Awards. Silva Screen Records released a soundtrack album composed of his work on the first and second series in September 2008 and in July 2009 released the Children of Earth soundtrack.[5] Foster conducted the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Doctor Who – A Symphonic Spectacular which took place on 4 February 2012, and 31 January 2014, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia. In December 2012 he conducted Sydney-based Metropolitan Orchestra in the Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular at the Sydney Opera House.[6]
Foster left his role as Doctor Who conductor and orchestrator in 2015 and was replaced by Alastair King, who took up the role for Series 10.
Other works
As a composer, Foster's early professional work includes theme tunes to Love on a Saturday Night, The 1970's Office and The Great British Test Series all for LWT as well as a host of commercials, working for the Mcasso Music agency. Other commercials he has worked on include award winning commercials for Soundtree Music such as Sony Paint and the 2007 Sony Walkman.
In 2005 Foster re-arranged the theme tune to BBC Question Time which is currently running on BBC2.
Foster was a judge on the Blue Peter Music Makers project in 2006, a contributor to the Blue Peter Movie Makers project in 2007 and chair of the judging panel for BBC Young Musician of the Year 2008. He also contributed to the CBBC project Clash.
Ben has worked extensively with the singer and composer Peter Gabriel since 2009, conducting his last two studio albums with the New Blood Orchestra and touring the 'New Blood' project across the world.
Recent work includes the themes and music for BBC Cardiff Singer of the World (2011) and BBC Young Musician (2012). He also co-wrote the music (with Murray Gold) for Scott & Bailey for ITV1.
He composed the score and arranged songs for a biopic of Dame Shirley Bassey for BBC Two which aired in September 2011.
Foster has been credited within BBC One's 2014 drama Happy Valley closing titles as the 'Composer'.
In 2015, Foster and his brother Nick worked on the soundtrack for CITV's Thunderbirds Are Go.
In 2016, Foster and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra had composed a revamped version of the opening theme for the BBC Scotland series "Still Game".
Walter Scott Bradley was an American composer, pianist, arranger, and conductor.
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. Founded in 1930, it was the first permanent salaried orchestra in London, and is the only one of the city's five major symphony orchestras not to be self-governing. The BBC SO is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
William Havergal Brian was a prominent 20th-century English composer, librettist, and church organist.
The Symphony No. 3 in C minor, Op. 78, was completed by Camille Saint-Saëns in 1886 at the peak of his artistic career. It is popularly known as the Organ Symphony, since, unusually for a late-Romantic symphony, two of the four sections use the pipe organ. The composer inscribed it as: Symphonie No. 3 "avec orgue".
Franck Pourcel was a French composer, arranger, and conductor of popular and classical music.
Alastair King is a British composer and conductor, perhaps best known for his musical contributions to film and television. He frequently collaborates with composers Charlie Mole, Geoff Zanelli, Nicholas Hooper and Rupert Gregson-Williams by either conducting for them or acting as an orchestrator or both.
Murray Jonathan Gold is an English composer for stage, film, and television and a dramatist for both theatre and radio. He is best known as the musical director and composer of the music for Doctor Who from its revival in 2005 until 2017. In 2023, he was announced to be returning to the series. Gold's other television work includes Queer as Folk, Last Tango in Halifax and Gentleman Jack. He has been nominated for five BAFTAs.
George Walter Selwyn Lloyd was a British composer.
Gavin Sutherland is a conductor, composer/arranger, pianist and musicologist. He is currently Music Director for English National Ballet.
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The second series of British science fiction programme Doctor Who began on 25 December 2005 with the Christmas special "The Christmas Invasion". Following the special, a regular series of thirteen episodes was broadcast, starting with "New Earth" on 15 April 2006. In addition, two short special episodes were produced; a Children in Need special and an interactive episode, as well as 13 TARDISODEs. It is the second series of the revival of the show, and the twenty-eighth season overall.
William Goodchild is a composer, orchestrator and conductor who produces music for film, television and the concert hall.
"Music of the Spheres" is an interactive mini-episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that premiered at the Royal Albert Hall in London before the Intermission of the Doctor Who Prom on 27 July 2008, for which it was especially made. The Doctor Who Prom, including the audio for "Music of the Spheres", was broadcast simultaneously on BBC Radio 3. "Music of the Spheres" was shown on the official BBC Doctor Who website during the interval and the concert itself was filmed for later broadcast on BBC One on 1 January 2009.
Philip Prosper Sainton was a British–French composer, conductor, and violist.
Prom 13: Doctor Who Prom was a concert showcasing incidental music from the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, along with classical music, performed on 27 July 2008 in the Royal Albert Hall in London as part of the BBC's annual Proms series of concerts. The Doctor Who Prom was the thirteenth concert in the 2008 Proms season, and was intended to introduce young children to the Proms.
Torchwood: Original Television Soundtrack is a soundtrack album which was released on 22 September 2008, containing incidental music composed by Ben Foster and Murray Gold and used in the first and second series of the British science fiction television programme Torchwood.
Martin Yates is a British conductor. After attending Kimbolton School, he studied at the Royal College of Music and Trinity College of Music, London, where his teachers included Bernard Keeffe (conducting), Richard Arnell (composition), Ian Lake, Jakob Kaletsky and Alan Rowlands (piano), and Douglas Moore and John Burden.
Robert Emery is an English pianist, conductor, music producer and orchestrator. He was born in Pelsall in the West Midlands (UK), began playing the piano as a child, and became known after performing with major artists, including Russell Watson, Meat Loaf, and Stewart Copeland, whilst conducting bare-footed.
Charles Cozens is involved in the music industry in Canada as an arranger for solo artists; a composer writing in multiple genres for diverse organizations including chamber ensembles, musical theatre, and television; a conductor and producer of crossover orchestral shows; a performer on piano and accordion in jazz, classical, and pop styles; and as a recording artist and producer.
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