RAVENSCROFT CONCERT SERIES – Ben Wendel
Grammy nominated saxophonist Ben Wendel, born in Vancouver, raised in Los Angeles, and currently living in Brooklyn, has enjoyed a varied career as a performer, composer, producer and conductor. Highlights include multiple domestic and international tours with artists such as Ignacio Berroa, Tigran Hamasyan, Gerald Clayton, Eric Harland, Taylor Eigsti, Snoop Dogg and the late Prince. Ben is a founding member of the Grammy nominated group Kneebody.
In 2015, Ben Wendel released a music-video art project entitled The Seasons inspired by a set of twelve piano pieces written and release each month by Tchaikovsky in 1876. Wendel’s modern take on the idea was to compose and release twelve original jazz chamber duets in video format on YouTube with modern luminaries Joshua Redman, Luciana Souza, Eric Harland, Julian Lage, and Ambrose Akinmusire, among others. As the videos garnered acclaim among social networks, the project became an unexpected word of mouth success and was featured prominently in The New York Times (Best of 2015), NPR’s All Things Considered, and the CBC.
Ben Wendel Group features a cast of some of the great young players of today, playing through the repertoire of an already acclaimed discography including the albums “What We Bring” and “The Seasons”
