Benjamin Elliott is an associate instructor and master’s degree student in the piano department of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, where he also completed undergraduate studies. As a native of Fishersville in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, he received accolades in many Virginia competitions and festivals, including eleven consecutive “superior” ratings at the Eastern Mennonite University Piano Festival. He has attended Awadagin Pratt’s Art of the Piano festival, the MasterWorks Festival, and the Edward Auer Summer Piano Workshop, where he won the solo competition as well as the classical concerto competition, performing with the IU Summer Philharmonic under conductor David Neely. He also recently won the competition to present Beethoven’s Op. 101 sonata in the Jacobs School’s Beethoven Piano Sonata Festival concert series. His primary teachers have included Edward Auer and Karen Shaw, and he has appeared in masterclasses taught by Ann Schein, Martin Jones, Marina Lomazov, James Giles, Richard Goode, and Christopher O’Riley. Elliott is also comfortable in collaborative roles; he spent ten years as pianist at Tabernacle Presbyterian Church in Waynesboro, VA, and currently assists in music direction at Hope Presbyterian Church in Bloomington, IN and Reformed University Fellowship at Indiana University. Additionally, he accompanies the IU Conductors’ Chorus, plays for classes of the IU Ballet Theater, and is highly active as a collaborator in the Jacobs School’s vocal and instrumental studios, completing coursework and other opportunities under the direction of Anne Epperson. Since 2014, Elliott has premiered and recorded multiple solo and chamber works by Virginia composer Joseph Kornicke. In addition to the piano, he studies organ with Christopher Young, and is also experienced in harpsichord and voice.