Recently named one of 23 artists who are “changing the sound of classical music” by the Washington Post, Ben Roidl-Ward is the Assistant Professor of Bassoon at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He also holds positions as Principal Bassoonist of the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Illinois Symphony and Co-Principal Bassoonist of Sinfonia Da Camera. A leading performer of contemporary music, Ben is the bassoonist of Chicago’s Ensemble Dal Niente and served as a Contemporary Leader for the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland from 2021-2024. He continues to serve as a Bassoon Coach for the Lucerne Festival Academy. Ben’s dedication to working with and advocating for composers of his generation has led him to commission numerous works featuring the bassoon, and he has participated in the premieres of over 160 compositions to date.

Ben has performed with leading ensembles around the country, including the Chicago Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the Grossman Ensemble, and the St. Louis, Oregon, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Hawai’i, and Richmond Symphonies. In 2021, he performed as Guest Principal Bassoonist of the Arctic Philharmonic in Bodø, Norway. As a soloist, Ben has performed concertos by composers from Antonio Vivaldi to Sofia Gubaidulina with ensembles such as the Seattle Symphony, the Illinois Wind Symphony, the Oberlin Contemporary Ensemble, and the Northwestern University Contemporary Ensemble, among others. He was the 3rd Prizewinner of the International Double Reed Society Young Artist Competition (2013), a finalist for the Gillet-Fox Competition (2020), and the recipient of a Luminarts Fellowship in Classical Music (2018). His festival appearances include the Mostly Mozart, Ravinia, Grant Park, Tanglewood, Lucerne, Donaueschingen, Spoleto, National Repertory Orchestra, and Banff Festivals.

Prior to his appointment at the University of Illinois, Ben held teaching positions as Assistant Professor of Bassoon at the University of Northern Iowa, Guest Faculty at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and Instructor of Bassoon at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI. He has served as a Mentor for the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative, a program that prepares students from underrepresented backgrounds for admission to top music schools, and currently coaches chamber music for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras. Ben has presented masterclasses at the International Double Reed Society Conference (2024), the Eastman School of Music, Northwestern University, the Oberlin and Peabody Conservatories, SUNY Fredonia, and the State Universities of Arizona, Louisiana, Colorado, and Oklahoma.

Ben’s debut solo album, Axis Mundi, was featured on Bandcamp Daily’s “Best Contemporary Classical on Bandcamp: November 2022.” He can also be heard on recordings on releases on labels such as KAIROS, Nimbus Records, New Focus Recordings, Edition Zeitgenössische Musik, Carrier Records, Navona Records, Oberlin Music, and Records to Burn, among others. He served as Artist-in-Residence as a soloist at the Bienen Center for New Music at Northwestern University in the Spring of 2023, and with the Harvard Group for New Music in Fall of 2023. He has also held ensemble residencies at institutions including the Peabody Conservatory, the University of California Davis, the University of Florida, and the Faculty of Arts at the National University of La Plata (Argentina).

Ben is an alum of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. He received his DMA from Northwestern University, where he studied with David McGill and researched methods of notating the bassoon’s multiphonics. His previous teachers include Ben Kamins at Rice University, George Sakakeeny at the Oberlin Conservatory, and Francine Peterson in the Seattle area.