Biography

Austin-based violinist Ben Kronk enjoys an active career as a soloist, chamber musician and artistic director. Top prize winner for the American Opera Society of Chicago in 2022, Ben has continued to win the Texas Rising Stars Competition. In the Summer of 2021 he performed as Concertmaster for the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado and performed Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor with conductor Michael Stern. Recent solo engagements include appearances with the Austin Civic Orchestra performing Walton’s Violin Concerto, and engagements with the Central Texas Medical Orchestra, the Toccoa Symphony, and the Caroga Lake Music Festival.  In addition to performing Ben founded and serves as the chief executive officer for the SouthEastern Young Artists Inc. (SEYA), a chamber music festival in Georgia.  Hosting more than 20 artists from the United States SEYA programs over 10 concerts a year for rural areas in venues, theaters, churches and private homes. Working with other festivals including the Caroga Arts Collective, he was part of the team which wrote and won the Consolidated Funding Application grant of New York which awarded $82,000 to the collective. 

Ben is a member of Artosphere, the Iris Collective and performs with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic Society, Folks’ Operetta, Wisconsin Philharmonic, and La Crosse Symphony Orchestra. An avid chamber musician and recording artist, he has collaborated with artists Janet Sung, Sandy Yamamoto, Daniel Ching, Matthew Lipman, Stephen Balderston, Rose Ambrust Griffin, and Anna Petrova. In Chicago he performed  regularly with the Cloud Gate Quartet and participated in projects including the 2017 GRAMMY-nominated album “American Classics” with the National Orchestra Institute directed by David Allan Miller. He performed on the world premiere recording of Leo Sowerby’s work for the Leo Sowerby Foundation. Previously an Associate Member with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago under Ken-David Masur, he was awarded contracts with the Lincoln Center Stage, and was a regular substitute for Symphoria. 

He attended summer music festivals including Artosphere (‘23), the Maverick (‘22-‘23), Colorado College Summer Music Festival (‘19), National Repertory Orchestra (‘18, ‘21), Caroga Lake Music Festival (‘17 thru ’23), National Orchestra Institute (‘15, ‘17), Prague Summer Nights Festival (‘16), the Castleman Quartet Program (‘14) and Meadowmount. In addition to his orchestral playing, Ben performed with members of the Metropolitan Opera, Seattle Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Cavani Quartet, Silk Road Ensemble, Verona Quartet, Miro Quartet, Callisto Quartet, Omer Quartet, and KASA Quartet, and worked with a variety of conductors including JoAnn Falletta, David Allan Miller, Carl Topilow, Michael Stern, Scott Yoo, and John Morris Russell. 

Deeply passionate about teaching, Ben serves as the teaching assistant for Professor Sandy Yamamoto and coaches chamber music for the Austin Chamber Music Center.  He developed his pedagogical approach while at the Clavier-Werke School in Austin, the Académie de Musique Vivaldi in Montréal, and has taught in Suwon, South Korea, at the Paul Nigra Center in upstate New York as a teaching artist. Previously he was the teaching assistant for Janet Sung at DePaul. 

Currently pursuing his Doctorate of Musical Arts with Professor Sandy Yamamoto at the University of Texas at Austin, his previous education includes a Post-Master’s Certificate with Janet Sung at DePaul University. He earned his Bachelor of Music at the Eastman School of Music ‘17 under the guidance of Juliana Athayde, and his Master of Music from Mcgill University ‘19 under Alexander Read. He has studied and worked in masterclasses with some of the most renown violin pedagogues of the 21st century, including Midori, Pinchas Zuckerman, Charles Castlemann, Alex Kerr, Ivan Zenaty, Steve Rose, Axel Strauss, Andrew Wan, Jinjoo Cho, Gilles Henry, and Joseph Spacek.