Ben Wechsler began playing piano at the age of 4. Both of Ben’s parents were talented musicians: his father, William Wechsler, a professional hornist with many symphony orchestras and two major dance bands in the Forties, his mother a pianist who taught French and Latin. It was only natural that Ben’s first love is music .
Ben’s father died suddenly when Ben was 9, but had a great influence in Ben's musical development. Ben played his father’s horn throughout high school and studied piano and horn most of his life. At the age of 16 Ben studied pipe organ and was organist and choir director of a small church in his southern Illinois community of Mt. Vernon.
Ben pursued music in college, earning his undergraduate degree in music education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a graduate degree in the same field at Indiana University at Bloomington. Many of Ben’s father’s musical colleagues taught at Bloomington, confirming for Ben the high esteem that his father earned professionally. Bloomington was a blossoming time for Ben’s musical development – he held a graduate assistantship as Opera House Manager for the school’s highly respected opera school, and was able to study horn with his father’s teacher, Philip Farkas.
After teaching music in public schools for three years, Ben was invited to study opera and musical theater accompanying with Margaret Simmons at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, where he achieved a second Master of Music degree. He was privileged to accompany students in the voice studio of Richard Best, former Lyric Opera star bass. Ben has also studied piano with Kirt Pavitt in St. Louis.
Ben is now a Project Manger of Knowledge Management at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Prior to the CME, Ben held the position of Corporate Cybrarian for One Community, Inc., a web application consulting firm located in Chicago. His six–year tenure with One allowed him to establish himself as a web designer specializing in user interface design. He was promoted to the corporate office in 2001, where the Chief Marketing Officer asked him to design an electronic “cybrary” (hence his title) for the CRM industry. Because of Ben’s ability to take a large volume of information and present it in a format that is easily understood, his work was highly recognized and praised.
Ben taught music in public schools for three years and successfully consulted to large school districts for ten years as an Apple Education Sales Consultant. It was the introduction of the Internet that gave Ben the opportunity to discover his web design skills.
When not working, Ben is busy composing music and performing piano, pipe organ and French horn. It is a vision of Ben’s to create music that is transformative and enlightening for his audiences. He has performed as second horn with the St. Louis Philharmonic Orchestra and, since recently moving to Chicago, is pursuing an opportunity to play horn in a suburban orchestra. He is also putting together a solo piano concert for several scheduled performances in 2006. Ben has recently been accepted as a Business Volunteer for the Arts with the Arts and Business Council of Chicago, and he is thrilled to be an active participant in the arts community of greater Chicago.

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