Benjamin Makino

Benjamin Makino is recognized for thoughtfully nuanced interpretations spanning complex contemporary scores and core traditional works.

Throughout his career, Makino has been associated with organizations recognized for innovation. Following his successful engagement with Opera Memphis for the first 30 Days of Opera, he was appointed the company’s Music Director. During his tenure, the company built a reputation for rich community engagement programs and innovative programming and productions.

Long involved in contemporary music, Makino has conducted several world and national premieres, including Stewart Copeland’s Tell-Tale Heart, Gavin Bryars’ The Paper Nautilus and Max Duykers’ and Philip Gotanda’s Both Eyes Open. He will lead the upcoming world premiere of Derrick Wang’s Fearless with Delaware Opera.

Before joining Opera Memphis, Makino served as the Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master at Long Beach Opera for several seasons. During his time with the company, he led several productions and assisted on numerous national premiers, most notably, Gabriela Ortiz’ ¡Únicamente la Verdad!He has since returned to the company leading a production of Frank Martin’s The Love Potion (Le vin herbé), for which the Los Angeles Times praised him as “consistently sensitive to the work’s exquisite timing and placement of dynamics and color,” making “the most of the composer’s subtle chamber orchestra textures.”

In higher education, Makino is an advocate for open educational resources and zero textbook-cost courses in the California Community College system, and his work in this area at Porterville College helped secure a significant grant for its music degree program. Two of his online music appreciation courses are available to students throughout California via the California Virtual Campus.

An active pianist, he has performed with members of the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the Memphis Chamber Music Society, and numerous vocalists, including Quinn Kelsey and Pene Pati. 

He has served on grant review panels for New Music USA and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Makino lives in Porterville, California, with his wife, jazz musician and professor Sarah Rector, who directs the music program at Porterville College, and their daughter.