At the center of their artistic practice is the belief that music is a universal language. Historically informed performance practice empowers them to evoke the zeitgeist of this universal language in eloquent and revealing ways. Ben Price explores these possibilities as a dedicated soloist/chamber musician, orchestral performer, and thinker.

As an orchestral performer, Ben regularly performs with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, York Symphony Orchestra, and Symphony in C, where they serve as principal oboe. Ben is a former member of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra USA (VSO) and a three-time member of Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, where they toured Europe to play Gustav Mahler’s 5th Symphony, but also succeeded in getting lost on the metro in every city they went to. Ben has additionally been invited to perform at the Colorado College, Sarasota, Spoleto USA, and OrpheusPDX summer music festivals.

As a soloist and chamber musician, Ben delights in presenting a wide range of music, and is especially fulfilled by breathing new life into great music that languishes unplayed. Ben regularly performs in recital in Philadelphia and Portland, and has presented solo music by Bach (J.S. and C.P.E.), Jean Coulthard, David Maslanka, Althea Talbot-Howard, Grażyna Bacewicz, and Alyssa Morris, among others. Ben has performed the music of Julius Eastman, György Ligeti, and Ruth Crawford Seeger with the Curtis New Music Ensemble, and performed chamber works by Diane Baysang, Ruth Gipps, Jennifer Higdon, and Elizabeth Maconchy on the Curtis Recital Series. 

An avid contributor in the sphere of multimedia, Ben performed as part of the launch of Site-Specific Dances at the Paul Taylor Dance Company in New York City, a video installation with live dancing that highlights the relationship between music, dance, and nature. Ben has also recorded tracks for the Barnes Foundation and Curtis Institute’s joint presentation of John Dowell: A Public Intimate Space, a project that celebrates the heritage of Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood and contemplates architecture and urbanism.

Highlights of Ben’s 25-26 season include Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto with Symphony in C, and a new arrangement of J.S. Bach’s reconstructed Oboe d’amore Concerto with the renascent Curtis Collegium. Previous concerto highlights include Ralph Vaughan Williams’s oboe concerto with the VSO and Antonio Pasculli’s Concerto on themes from La Favorita with the Camerata PYP Chamber Orchestra, as well as J.S. Bach’s Oboe and Violin Concerto with Leah Amory and the Curtis Collegium.

Ben Price holds the Anderson and Daria Pew Fellowship at the Curtis Institute of Music, where they study with Katherine Needleman and Philippe Tondre. While at Curtis, additional studies with Ford Mylius Lallerstedt, Leon Schelhase, James E. Ross, and Michael Rusinek have been equally formative to their development. Originally from Portland, Oregon, Ben is a proud alum of the Portland Youth Philharmonic and the oboe studio of Karen Wagner. When not practicing, making reeds, or studying, Ben can usually be found wandering through the nearest park, checking out more books than they can carry at a library, or enjoying a Wednesday Tea with dear friends.

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