Born in Edmonton, Canada, Ben is a jazz guitarist with a warm, lyrical style, most reminiscent of the classic stylists of the 1950s and 1960s. Currently residing in Rochester, NY, Ben is a graduate student at the Eastman School of Music studying under guitarist Bob Sneider. Ben has also had the opportunity to study under renowned New York jazz musicians Peter Bernstein and Grant Stewart, as well as notable Canadian jazz musicians, Don Thompson, Kelly Jefferson, Jim Head and Reg Schwager. Recent performance experiences include a warmly received concert featuring one of jazz’s most unique and legendary alto saxophonists, Lee Konitz, and Eastman’s own Harold Danko, in a sextet put together to pay homage to recently deceased jazz composer/theorist, George Russell. In 2009 Ben was the guitarist with the Dave Rivello New Jazz Ensemble, winner of the Downbeat Magazine 2009 Student Jazz Award for best big band. Further performance experiences have taken Ben to many jazz festivals and venues across his native Canada, as well as around the world in various capacities, whether in the nightclubs of Asia’s most elite hotels, or aboard luxury ocean liners. He has recently formed a group with fellow Eastman students Jeff McLeod and Kevin McDonald, a contemporary rethinking of the classic and ever funky guitar/organ/drums trio.