University of North Carolina Charlotte
Mirasol Quartet
Originally from Raleigh, NC, Ben Still is an active solo and chamber musician throughout the United States. Currently, he is Instructor of Saxophone at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and Instructor of Single Reeds at Lenoir-Rhyne University.
An avid chamber music advocate, Ben is a founding member and the tenor saxophonist of Mirasol Quartet. He has been a prizewinner and finalist in numerous national competitions, including the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, the American Prize Chamber Music Competition, the ENKOR Chamber Music Competition, the Coleman Chamber Ensemble Competition, the Music Teachers National Association Chamber Winds Competition, and the North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Quartet Competition. As a soloist, he was a national finalist in the Music Teachers National Association Young Artist Solo Competition and the winner of the Texas Tech University Concerto Competition.
Additionally, Ben has performed at North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial and Regional Conferences, the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic (Chicago, IL), and has presented and performed at the International Saxophone Symposium (Fairfax, VA) and Texas Music Educators Association Conference (San Antonio, TX). He has performed with the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra, the Midland-Odessa Symphony Orchestra, and the Texas Tech University Symphony Orchestra. As a jazz and commercial musician, he has performed with artists such as The Temptations, The Four Tops, Rodney Booth, Steve Lippia, John Riley, Bob McChesney, Rich Perry, James Riggs, Bill Watrous, and Ethan Helm.
Ben is a DMA candidate in performance at Texas Tech University where he also received his Master of Music degree, studying concert saxophone with David Dees and jazz improvisation and arranging with Stephen Jones. At Texas Tech, he was a member of the TTU Jazz Ensemble I, TTU Saxophone Ensemble, and he also taught saxophone and woodwinds in Lubbock, Lubbock-Cooper, and Frenship Independent School Districts. Additionally, he was a D’Addario Woodwind Method Clinician serving as the representative for Midland/Odessa, TX for the 2016-2017 school year. Prior to moving to Texas, he received his bachelor’s degree from UNC Charlotte, where he studied with Will Campbell and graduated summa cum laude. Ben was also an inaugural member of UNC Charlotte’s College of Arts and Architecture Honors Program, completing his thesis, entitled “A Comparative Analysis of Three Improvisational Approaches to the Chord Progression to ‘I Got Rhythm’”, in 2013. Professionally, Ben holds affiliations with Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Texas Music Educators Association, and the North American Saxophone Alliance.
Mirasol Quartet: “four ( x ) ɹnoɟ”. Independently released. Tracklist: Back Burner – Frank Ticheli, Recitation Book – David Maslanka, Ciudades: Sarajevo – Guillermo Lago, Quatuor, Op. 102 – Florent Schmitt. (Released February 2017)
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