Ben Zucker
“I believe it is imperative that we introduce them [young musicians] to experimental forms of music making early, and show them that there are all kinds of ways to make music that allow for exploration and self-actualization, both in the process of creating, and in the performance itself.
Should the opportunity arise, I'm excited to collaborate with a youth orchestra to learn about what the orchestra really means for them by speaking with players, and develop a collaborative relationship with people with fewer pre-conceptions about what music can or should be. With any luck, they'll pass it on to even more of the world…”
Biography
Interested in the possibilities of musical relationality amongst people, objects, and histories, Ben Zucker crosses and intentionally plays with genre, discipline, and creative roles. As a composer, audiovisual artist, multi-instrumentalist, and performer, he has contributed to experimental music scenes of the Bay Area, Connecticut, London, Chicago, and beyond, performing and presenting work in places including the Banff Centre (Alberta, CA), Vortex Jazz Club (London), San Francisco Center For New Music, Trinity College Dublin, Southbank Centre (London), Indeterminacy Festival (Buffalo/Montreal), Westben Centre (Ontario), New York Fringe Festival, Switchboard Music Festival (SF), Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago), and the Darmstadt Ferienkurse (Germany). He has been called a “master of improvisation” (IMPOSE Magazine), was recognized as a "New Composer Talent" by the International Audio Branding Academy, and his work has won awards and commissions from the Chicago Composers Orchestra, Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Nucleo Musica Nova (Parana, Brazil), Constellation Men’s Ensemble (Chicago), Khorikos (NYC), San Francisco Choral Artists, and San Francisco Contemporary Music Players. His album projects combine brass, percussion, voice, and keyboards into adventurous performances acclaimed as “a testament to the power of restraint and arrangement” (Decoder Magazine), and “more than a little bit remarkable” (Free Jazz Blog). Ben studied music, performance, and philosophy at Wesleyan University, Brunel University London, and currently as a doctoral student at Northwestern University.