Ben Kapilow works as Assistant Professor/Music Director for the BFA/BA Programs in Musical Theatre at SUNY Cortland, a tenure-track position in which he teaches classes in music theory and music history while also music directing two musicals per year. Prior to his appointment at SUNY Cortland, he served as the Resident Music Director for the Media Theatre for the Performing Arts, a position he held for 7 years music directing dozens of professional and educational shows. Outside of Media Theatre, he has worked as a music director and pianist at Walnut Street Theatre, Syracuse Stage, Candlelight Theatre, Fulton Theatre, Temple University, Malvern Preparatory School, Mother of Providence School, and St. Pius X School. In summer 2025, he will work as Assistant Music Director for Barnum and Top Hat at The Rev Theatre Company, and in December 2025 he will play keyboard 2 as a sub for the National Tour of Wicked.

Active in education, Ben has taught private piano, songwriting, and voice lessons to many hundreds of students through his private studio as well as through the Media Theatre, Darlington Arts Center, and Meridee Winters School of Music. He was also the Music Director for the State Street Miracles, a vocal group for adults with intellectual disabilities. In July 2025 he will serve as Music Director for the Ithaca College Summer Theatre Conservatory.

His interest in music teaching led him to create the piano teacher podcast All Keyed Up in 2021, which at its height had 17,000 subscribers and was named one of the Top Piano Podcasts of 2021 by Welp Magazine and one of the 20 Best Piano Podcasts by Feedspot. He has been featured on the TopCast Podcast, Josh Wright Piano Podcast, Piano Pantry Podcast, the Piano Parent Podcast, and Pianist Academy. He has presented at the Pennsylvania Music Teacher’s Association Conference, the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, the Creative Teaching Conference, and the Expand Online Summit. He has published articles about piano pedagogy with Colourful Keys and Piano Magazine. In spring 2026, he will speak at the Music Teachers National Association Conference in Chicago.

As a composer, Ben has choral pieces published by Alfred Music, Chorister’s Guild, and the Lorenz Corporation. His piece “The Bells” received Editor’s Choice from JW Pepper in 2024. The Media Theatre has premiered seven of his children's musicals. His musical "Peter Pan and Wendy,” written with Kate Herzlin, was additionally performed at the American Contemporary Theater of Connecticut. His pieces have been performed by Symphony Number One, Theatre on the Verge, the Great Noise Ensemble, Trio Ex Animo, the University of Scranton Singers, the Swarthmore College Orchestra, and at the Jack O'Lantern Blaze Festival in Hudson Valley, New York for two consecutive seasons. He also composed incidental music for “Hecuba” at the American Thymele Theatre and "Inducement and Encouragement" at the Zephyr Theatre. Relatedly, he was the music director for the MusiCoLab New Works showcase in June 2024.

Ben graduated Pi Kappa Lambda from the Peabody Conservatory with an M.M. in Music Composition, and he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Swarthmore College with a B.A. in Music and Psychology. He returned to Swarthmore College in 2023 as an Honors Examiner in Music.