Join us for a live performance from composer-performer Ben Cosgrove who is currently Artist-in-Residence helping to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Ben's music and storytelling will transport you throughout landscapes near and far in a way few performers can. Ben has travelled throughout the 261 miles of the Refuge along the Mississippi and will share his inspiration and reflections in this performance.Ben Cosgrove is a traveling composer-performer whose music explores themes of landscape, place, and environment. Described by the Boston Globe as “a sonic plein-air painter… [using] his piano as a paintbrush,” Ben has performed in every U.S. state except for Delaware, collaborated with groups ranging from rock bands to research scientists, contributed music to several radio and film projects (including the recent Ken Burns documentary The American Buffalo), and held residencies and fellowships with institutions including NASA, the National Park Service, the National Forest Service, Harvard University, Middlebury College, the Schmidt Ocean Institute, and the Sitka Center for Art & Ecology. Recently he has been engaged by the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge to compose music inspired by the region in advance of the refuge's 100th anniversary.
Ben’s music has been called "beautiful and fascinating" (The Maine Edge), "deeply impressive" (Independent Clauses), and "immediately evocative and fully arresting... brim[ming] with technical mastery and emotional capital" (Seven Days). His newest record, Bearings, a collection of improvisation-based music that reflects upon the relationship between movement and place, was released in 2023. You can read more about Bearings here, stream it on all platforms here, and order the album in CD, vinyl, or digital formats here.
For more about Ben and his work, please visit bencosgrove.com.
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