Ben Hoadley

Ben Hoadley holds degrees in bassoon performance from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the New England Conservatory in Boston and a Master of Music with First Class Honours from the University of Waikato where he won the Lilburn Composition Prize and received the FASS Masters Thesis Scholarship. Ben also studied composition privately with Edwin Carr and completed coursework in composition at the Juilliard School. He has received fellowships to the Australian National Academy of Music, Tanglewood Music Centre and the Weill Music Institute at Carnegie Hall.

A focus of Ben’s compositional output is chamber music for wind instruments, drawing inspiration from the natural world and from the visual arts. This is apparent in his first major composition completed after his return to New Zealand from the USA in 2007, the series of pieces, Manaia.

Ben's compositions include: the chamber opera Miss Brill, written in collaboration with Sydney playwright Craig Brush, and premiered at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2018 as part of the Resonate series; Huia for organ and orchestra, premiered by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra; Turakirae for clarinet and orchestra, premiered by Peter Scholes and the Auckland Chamber Orchestra, with support from a Creative NZ grant; and works commissioned by the Sydney Omega Ensemble, Professor Jack C. Richards and schools including Westlake Girls High School, St. Cuthbert’s College and Hutt International Boys School. His compositions have been recorded and broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Radio NZ, SOUNZ Resound and for CD on the Atoll label. Waltz, Gavotte and Burlesque was premiered by the bassoon section of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and premiered at the SSO's chamber series at St. James Church, Sydney.

Ben lectures at both the University of Auckland and the Australian Institute of Music, and is regularly invited to teach at institutions throughout New Zealand and abroad, including a residency at the University of Louisville in 2017. One of Australasia's most versatile bassoonists, Ben has appeared frequently as guest principal with most of the professional orchestras in both Australia and New Zealand, as a recital and concerto soloist and chamber musician.

Ben has a special interest in New Zealand repertoire, regularly working closely with composers in the creation of new music for bassoon. Since 2008 Ben has curated an annual New Zealand Music for Woodwind concert at St. Andrews on the Terrace, Wellington which has presented over 40 new works by established and emerging composers.

Gillian Whitehead has written a number of pieces for Ben, which he has recorded on the Atoll CD Arapātiki, which was a finalist in the 2014 NZ Music Awards. Also on the Atoll label, Ben has recorded the CD Southern Invention, featuring Australasian music for bassoon and piano. Ben premiered Alex Taylor's critically acclaimed bassoon concerto in 2014, subsequently performing and recording it with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. In 2017 Ben gave the Australasian premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina's Concerto for Bassoon and Low Strings with the Auckland Chamber Orchestra.