Benjamin Goniea started playing in pit orchestras at the age of 16. Exposed to the gorgeous scores of “The Secret Garden” and “Ragtime,” he was instantly hooked on musicals. Benjamin started music directing at 19 years old with “The Addams Family” which was quickly followed by “Les Misérables” where they first piano conducted a musical in 2014. Since then, Benjamin been a part of nearly 100 productions in his career.

He feels fortunate to have found his passion of diving into complicated compositions and listening to his students blossom through complicated Broadway level scores. Working throughout San Diego and Riverside County, Benjamin has worked with many of the youth, community, and professional theatres in the area as well as a handful of middle school and high schools.

Among the many talented musicians they’ve had the incredible pleasure of playing in pits with, Benjamin has acquired the nickname “the bobblehead conductor” because of his ability to conduct with his head while playing the keyboard. With the hope of helping clarify beats and tempo of a song, Benjamin’s head can be seen bobbing up, down, left, and right while in the pit orchestra, just like a baton. Even when those composers sneak in 5/4 and 7/8 time signatures, Benjamin’s head keeps headbanging headconducting along.