Hailed as a “saxophone sorcerer and sonic alchemist” (Google Gemini) and acclaimed for his “ethereal saxophone playing” (Vital Weekly), Dylan Ward is a musician/improviser/sound artist specializing in contemporary music. Ward has released recordings on the Neuma, Mother Brain, and XAS record labels that have been described as “meditative, jarring, and cosmic…highly creative” (Take Effect Reviews), and been praised for presenting music that is “clear and coherent in its discourse, original in its sounds, and as beautiful and intellectually stimulating as it is playful” (Pan M 360). Ward’s musical interpretations have been praised by American composer David Biedenbender as “amazing…sensitive, beautiful, intense, and powerful” and Grammy Award winning composer Augusta Read Thomas as “spectacular.”
Ward has performed nationally at the Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend Festival, Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab, NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival, Mostly Modern Festival, Oh My Ears Festival, Charlotte SHOUT! Festival, Charlotte BOOM Festival, Kansas City Contemporary Music Festival, Kansas City Open Spaces, iHearIC Series, Charlotte Street Foundation Capsule Series, Kansas City Classical Revolution, and Kansas City Public Library Series, among others. He has also appeared as a soloist with the North Carolina Symphony, Georgia Philharmonic, Raleigh Symphony, and Jackson Heights Orchestra, and as a chamber musician in venues including Lincoln Center, Constellation Chicago, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Mesa Arts Center, Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Pianodrome at Grace AME Zion Church, Camp North End, and Sheen Center for Thought and Culture.
In July 2022, Ward released his debut solo electroacoustic album, Tourmaline, through Neuma Records. Hailed as a “gem of a new release” and celebrated for being a “perfectly produced, engineered, and packaged collection of experimental music” (All About the Arts), the album explores ideas of sonic transmutation and alchemy, featuring music by Alexandra Gardner, Viet Cuong, Seth Andrew Davis, Kenneth Michael Florence, and Emma O’Halloran. From the Cave of Crystals to the cosmogonic Ogdoad, from Paul Klee’s depiction of the Angel of History to the structure of a Michael Jordan documentary, Tourmaline covers a wide range of creative concepts in pursuit of the alchemical magnum opus.
Ward is a founding member of Dionysus, a modern re-invention of the traditional piano trio featuring Dylan Ward and Ali Wright on saxophones and Juliana Balinski on piano. Dionysus has toured across the United States and abroad, performing at Lincoln Center, Interlochen Center for the Arts, and St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, in addition to several colleges and universities. In January 2021, Dionysus released their first recording, Hocket, featuring music by American composers Augusta Read Thomas, Meredith Monk, Kirsten Broberg, Philip Glass, David Biedenbender, and Marc Mellits. Hocket was praised by Steve Carmichael of The Saxophonist for being a “concept recording of the highest order…oozing with musicality”, further stating “Dionysus delightfully excels with such precision that one may think it is only one saxophone performing.”
Ward holds a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Missouri–Kansas City. He holds previous degrees from Michigan State University and the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Ward’s creative work has received funding from the NC Arts Council, Arts & Science Council Charlotte-Mecklenburg, NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, City of Charlotte, Infusion Fund, Foundation For the Carolinas, UMKC School of Graduate Studies, Charlotte Street Foundation, Semans Art Fund, UNCSA Career Development Office, Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, and William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust. Ward is a JLV Sound Ambassador and endorses all JLV Sound products.
