The IDYTalk series featuring Idyllwild Arts Academy students returns at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 21, with Musical Theatre major Benjamin Biber speaking in person in the campus’ Krone Library to academy faculty and students, and on Zoom to everyone else.

Ben and his family are long-time Idyllwild residents, and he has attended both the Idyllwild Arts Summer Program and, for grades seven and eight, Idyllwild School. Life in a small mountain town like Idyllwild brings many benefits, and he will be ready to address these in his IDYTalk.

Among the benefits is proximity to the academy for young people who develop strong artistic interests, as Ben started to do when he was 7 or 8.

“But for a few years I was only interested in acting,” he recalls.

It was “Hamilton: An American Musical,” Lin-Manuel Miranda’s award-winning creation which premiered on Broadway in 2015, that provoked Ben’s fascination with musical theatre.

“I became aware of “Hamilton” when I was in middle school.”

The play’s integration of hip hop, R&B, pop and soul with traditional-style show tunes “made me curious about how it’s possible to pull so many different musical genres together to tell a story.”

Ben also remembers being impressed by the simple fact that “the performers were acting and singing at the same time …”

“I didn’t have any singing experience,” he admits. “However, I’d learned how to project for the stage, which gave me a pretty good start in developing a singing voice.”

His voice now falls into the “high baritone to low tenor range, but I’m trying to get to mid-tenor so that I can hit the high notes for something like ‘Phantom of the Opera.’”

Will he make it to high tenor? Exuding his characteristic quiet confidence, Ben says that his Idyllwild Arts voice teacher, Frank Haggard, is “slowly but surely” helping him develop a capacity for mid-tenor parts.

Although musical theater performers can act and sing at the same time, some roles demand less singing than others. This is the case for Ben’s upcoming portrayal of Monsieur Thénardier, in Bonnie Gleicher’s “Gavroche,” which he calls “a teenage take on ‘Les Misérables.’”

“As Thénardier, I’ll sing a little,” he shrugs. “That’s the way it goes sometimes. You have to roll with it.”

So far, it’s not clear what the opportunities will be to enjoy Benjamin Biber and his Idyllwild Arts Academy classmates in “Gavroche,” when they perform this November or December. The announcement will come later.

Meanwhile, you’re invited to enjoy Ben’s Thursday evening, Oct. 21, IDYTalk at https://idyllwildarts.zoom.us/j/97444090374.