Cello with Benjamin F.

Despite his youth, Ben Fryxell is already a seasoned veteran cellist and educator. Since his teenage years, he has been a regular presence on the concert stage and a frequent winner of awards and competitions. He has performed as a soloist with the Kentucky Symphony, Blue Ash-Montgomery Symphony and the combined forces of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra/Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra, the National Repertory Orchestra, the Brevard Music Center Orchestra, and more. He was the recipient of the 2019 Samuel Mayes Memorial Cello Award from the Tanglewood Music Center. When he returned to the Tanglewood Music Center in the summer of 2020 (in a virtual capacity, of course), he had the great honor of being selected to play for Yo-Yo Ma in an online class. He returned to Tanglewood in 2021, where he was able to play for Mr. Ma in person in a public masterclass attended by over one thousand audience members. Ben has also been a winner in concerto competitions at the Brevard Music Center and the New World Symphony. Besides playing, Ben is a firm believer in the power of education, and the sacred obligation to pass on knowledge and wisdom to others, and is gaining a worldwide reputation for his masterful teaching. After the COVID-19 pandemic caused widespread event cancellation, he began teaching students online from the Iberacademy in Medellín, Colombia, through their partnership with the New World Symphony, where he is currently a Fellow. Furthermore, as his online presence, "Cello Ben", he launched a well-received online cello course for adult beginners. Ben received his master of music degree from the New England Conservatory, where he studied with Yeesun Kim, and his bachelor of music degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Natasha Brofsky. After graduate school, he joined the New World Symphony, where he is currently a Fellow. He has also studied with AliceAnn O'Neill and Alan Rafferty, and has studied chamber music with members of the Juilliard, Borromeo and Emerson string quartets, as well as Emanuel Ax, Norman Fischer and countless others. As an orchestral musician, he has sat principal under such conductors as Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Juanjo Mena, Michael Tilson Thomas, and Susanna Mälkki. Away from the cello, Ben is a skilled pianist, arranger, and composer. When he's not engaged in some sort of musical activity, he enjoys watching stand-up comedy and documentaries, coding, numismatics, and studying German.