Biography
Dr. Ben Nichols has traveled the globe, performing at large venues, intimate concerts, and countless festivals throughout North America, South America, Asia, and Europe. He is known internationally for his expressive sound and energetic artistic style and is frequently asked to play in many genres. Nichols has performed and recorded with contemporaries such as Joshua Redman, Linda May Han Oh, Ben Wendel, Donny McCaslin, Karrin Allyson, Wycliffe Gordon, Jon Faddis, Jeff Coffin, Bobby Shew, Eric Marienthal, Terreon Gully, Chip McNeill, Brian Bromberg, Steve Smith, Wayne Bergeron, Vince DiMartino, Kirk Whalum, Noah Preminger, Christi Zuniga, Lara Downes and many others. Nichols has performed as a featured guest soloist with the Omaha Symphony Orchestra and has also performed with the Utah Symphony. He recently performed Ibert’s Concertino da Camera, the Glazunov Saxophone Concerto, Maurice’s Tableaux de Provence among others at national conferences and recitals. Nichols is the Saxophone Professor at Brigham Young University where he also directs the award-winning jazz ensemble, Synthesis.
Nichols has performed as a featured artist at the Trier Jazz Festival (Germany), Edinburgh Jazz Festival (Scotland), Rio Das Ostras Jazz Festival (Brazil) and many more. He toured Asia in 2025 where he performed as a featured soloist at notable venues in Shanghai and Harbin (China), Seoul (South Korea), and in Kyoto (Japan). Ben has recently been invited/hired as an Artist in Residence at the Riga Latvia Academy of Music, and in Badbergzabern, Germany, where he worked with faculty and students and performed as a featured soloist.
Nichols is an endorsed Henri SELMER Paris Saxophone Artist. He has recorded on dozens of albums, including as a featured soloist on the DownBeat award-winning album “The Day After Yesterday.”
Nichols has received degrees from BYU, New England Conservatory, and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.