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. Ben has lectured at the University of Auckland since 2007 and teaches at the University of Waikato and the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

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, and works commissioned by the Sydney Omega Ensemble, Professor Jack C. Richards and schools including St. Cuthbert’s College, Westlake Girls High School, Diocesan School for Girls and St. Peters College. In 2020 Ben’s commissions include a work for solo oboe for Camille Wells (NZ/USA) and Shaiq Ahmad Noori (Afghanistan) through the Teach to Learn foundation in Boston, and a work for the Jade String Quartet’s annual series at Auckland’s Pah Homestead, based on poetry of Stephen Toussaint.

Waltz, Gavotte and Burlesque was recently premiered by the bassoon section of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at the SSO's chamber series at St. James Church, Sydney and subsequently performed at the Akaroa International Music Festival and the Melbourne International Bassoon Course.

Ben has a special interest in New Zealand repertoire, regularly working 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 (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 bassoon concerto in 2014 with the Auckland Chamber Orchestra, 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, also with the ACO.