Welcome Ben, our new and enthusiastic horn player from Rice University. Here are just a few of Ben's accomplishments recently. Watch this guy. He's a rising star and the Texas Brass supports him all the way!

BENJAMIN JABER has gained widespread recognition as a musician of diverse range and accomplishment through his performances in solo, orchestral and chamber music capacities. A native of Philadelphia, he was born into a musical family and began horn studies at age ten. He currently resides in Houston, where he made his solo debut in 2000 performing W.A. Mozart’s Concerto No. 3 in E-flat with the American Radio Chamber Orchestra. In 2003,he also performed alongside Jacek Muzyk, who currently serves as the Dallas Symphony Orchestra’s Associate Principal horn, in the Concerto for Two Horns by Antonio Vivaldi with the Houston Chamber Orchestra. In the same year, Mr. Jaber received first prize at the University Division of the American Horn Competition.

Equally at home in the orchestra as well as on the solo stage, Mr. Jaber was recently appointed Principal Horn of Houston’s Orchestra. This dynamic new ensemble seeks to bring great music to the masses in a variety of fresh and creative contexts. He is also a substitute with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra, having participated in many nationally- broadcasted productions, and is in demand with many of Houston’s finest freelance orchestras and ensembles.

Mr. Jaber has participated in numerous summer music festivals, including fellowships at the 2001 National Orchestral Institute and Pacific Music Festival of the same year, as well as the 2003 Aspen Music Festival and School. He was also a student at Boston University’s Tanglewood Institute, as well as on staff at the renowned Greenwood Chamber Music Camp in Cummington, Massachusetts. He has participated in master classes, as well as had the opportunity to work privately and in performance with Eric Ruske, Gail Williams, Charles Kavalovski, Günther Högner, Eli Epstein, Jerome Ashby, and John Zirbel.

A member of the Interlochen Arts Academy’s Class of 2000, Mr. Jaber is currently a candidate for the degree of Bachelor of Music in Performance from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music, where he studies with William Ver Meulen. Mr. Jaber was selected by the Shepherd School's eminent faculty to be one of the first to represent the school in the 2004 Conservatory Project being held at Washington, D.C.'s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he will be featured in a nationally- broadcasted solo recital alongside other select colleagues, performing amongst a showcase of talent from the finest schools of music in the country.