Composer

Biography

Ben Hoadley has worked as a bassoonist with many groups throughout Australasia, including the Sydney, Melbourne, Tasmanian, Queensland and New Zealand Symphonies, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and Stroma, and further afield as guest principal bassoonist in the Hong Kong Philharmonic, the Hallé and the Trondheim Symphony Orchestras.

After graduating from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Ben continued studies on a full scholarship at the New England Conservatory in Boston where he received several awards, including a 10 recital tour award sponsored by the Piatigorsky Foundation, also serving concurrently as principal bassoonist in the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and an extra player in the Boston Symphony and the New World Symphony Orchestras, among others. He has also attended the Australian National Academy of Music, the Tanglewood Music Centre and the Weill Academy at Carnegie Hall. Since 2007 he has lectured at the School of Music, University of Auckland.

With a strong interest in contemporary New Zealand music, Ben has collaborated with many composers and performers in the creation and performance of new music. He has presented a regular series of “New Zealand Music for Woodwind” concerts since 2009, and his performances are regularly recorded by Radio NZ Concert FM. Ben is featured on several CDs on the Atoll label, including “Arapatiki”, which features recent bassoon music of Gillian Whitehead.

As a composer, Ben’s works have been recorded by Radio New Zealand, the ABC and WGBH ‘FM Boston, and have been performed and/or commissioned by groups including the Sydney Omega Ensemble, Ars Musica Australis, The Auckland Philharmonia, the Karlheinz Company, Intrepid Music Projects and OKTA. Ben studied composition privately for several years with the late Edwin Carr and subsequently took classes at the Juilliard School in New York, working with Conrad Cummings.