Boston-based saxophonist and clarinetist Bennett Parsons is an accomplished soloist, orchestral, and chamber musician. He is a founding member and saxophonist of the Kalliope Reed Quintet, New England’s premiere reed quintet; Kalliope has commissioned over 20 new works and is currently releasing its first album, Amaru. As a soloist, he won first place in the 2019 New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble concerto competition and the 2016 Harvard Bach Society Orchestra concerto competition. He has appeared on all saxophones and clarinets with local groups including the Jamaica Plain Saxophone Quartet, Improbable Beasts, Callithumpian Consort, Phoenix Orchestra and Glens Falls Symphony, and toured internationally in Mazatlán, Buenos Aires, Rosario, Lugano and Milan. Bennett is a board member of the Boston Woodwind Society.

The expansion of woodwind repertoire through transcription is one of Bennett’s core interests. His concerto performances have included original transcriptions of Copland’s Clarinet Concerto and Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto for soprano saxophone. He has also performed Vaughan-Williams’ Oboe Concerto and Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 on soprano saxophone. Bennett’s recitals have featured his own transcriptions of the Brahms, Debussy, and Barber cello sonatas. Outside of the western tradition, Bennett has also completed transcriptions of Kayagum Sanjo – a traditional Korean Folk music for a stringed, zither-like instrument – for soprano saxophone, which he has performed at the Harvard Korea Institute.

Bennett completed the Harvard / NEC Dual Degree Program in 2019. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and cum laude from Harvard College in 2018, where he concentrated in computer science. At NEC, he graduated with academic honors, receiving an M.M. in saxophone performance under the instruction of Kenneth Radnofsky.