Dr, Ben Hawkins serves as the Orchestra Editor at RWS Music. He is Professor Emeritus at Transylvania University in Lexington, KY, having retired in 2024 after 39 years on the faculty. During his tenure he conducted the Concert Band and Chamber Orchestra, and taught courses in music theory, music education, and conducting, in addition to teaching in the Foundations of Liberal Arts, the University’s reading/writing/critical thinking requirement for first-year students. He was honored to hold Transylvania’s Bingham Fellowship for Teaching Excellence. 

Prior to his tenure at Transylvania, Dr. Hawkins taught five years of band in grades 6-12 in the public schools of Virginia and Texas. His arrangements have been performed by the United States Air Force Band and by numerous university and high school bands. He has served as a guest conductor, adjudicator, and clinician throughout the United States, as well as in Mexico and Australia. Dr. Hawkins is in his eighteenth year as Music Director and Conductor of the Central Kentucky Concert Band, a 75-member community ensemble in its 49th year of existence. Ben lives in Lexington with Cyndee, his wife of 43 years, a retired band director. They have two adult sons, Jay and Turner, and two perfect young grandchildren.