Benjamin Boone
SHORT BIO
Educator, Scholar, Composer, and saxophonist Benjamin Boone was born in the small textile town of Statesville, NC in 1963; related to Daniel Boone; his father was a traveling glue salesman/furniture-manufacturing trouble-shooter and his mother a homemaker and teacher; youngest of five sons; music career began in grade-school when he wrote music for his puppet shows (including the hit "My Name is Cookie Monster" -- penned at age 9); undergraduate degree in in saxophone and theory, masters and doctorate in music composition; moved all over since to Knoxville, Boulder, Boston, New York, Aiken SC, Washington DC, and Asheville; recorded rhinoceros vocalizations in Zimbabwe and Zambia with noted biologist; researched the pitch relationships of spoken American English (see Groves Dictionary under "blue note"); Fulbright "Senior Specialist Scholar" to the Republic of Moldova; compositions performed all over the world and on numerous CD’s; award-winning teacher at UT; was a Music Manager in New York (think Robert Palmer's back-up band); teaches theory and composition at California State University, Fresno where is also the "Faculty Service-Learning Mentor"; numerous faculty honors at Fresno State including the "President's Award of Excellence" and the "Provost's Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities"; played sax all over the U.S.A. and Europe; CD in national airplay charts top 100 for 3 weeks; loves to ski, compose, learn, read, teach and play with his wife and kids; enjoys "30 Rock,” "The Thomas Jefferson Hour", "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", NPR's "Radiolab" and "Wait, wait, don't tell me", and the principles of the Enlightenment.
FULL-LENGTH BIO
Educator, Scholar, Composer and Saxophonist Benjamin Boone, originally from the small textile town of Statesville, N.C., is a Professor at California State University Fresno where he has taught in the areas of music theory and composition since 2000. In 2011 Boone received the University’s highest honor, the “President’s Award of Excellence” for his “integrity, leadership, and commitment to the university.” This award is given by the University Advisory Board and carries a $10,000 honorarium. Prior to this honor, he was awarded the “Provost Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research, Scholarship and Creative Activities”, the “University Faculty Spirit of Service Award” for his design of a Service-Learning partnership with a juvenile court facility in Fresno, which has been hailed nationally as a model of Service-Learning Best Practices, and the “Best in Show Award” for his commitment to academic excellence. In Fall 2010 he was appointed Faculty Service-Learning Mentor for the Richter Center for Community Engagement and Service-Learning, facilitating the implementation of Service-Learning projects. Boone also instigated and coordinated the CSU Summer Arts Festival full-immersion two week courses “Composer-Performer Collaboration” with the Kronos Quartet, Guy Livingston, Kurt Rohde, et; al., and “Jazz and Beyond” with Poncho Sanchez, Theo Bleckmann, Ben Monder, et. al. Prior to his appointment at Fresno State, Boone taught at the University of Tennessee, where he received the “Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.”
A Fulbright Senior Specialist Fellow to the Univeritatea de Stat “Alecu Russo” (Republic of Moldova), Boone’s research on speech from a musical perspective has been noted in Oxford’s The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (the most respected music reference in the world) and in Judith Martinovich’s Creative Expressive Activities and Asperger’s Syndrome (Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London, 2005). He has also edited manuscripts of Music Theory texts for Schirmer/Wadsworth, McGraw Hill and Prentice Hall.
Boone’s compositions have been performed in over twenty-four countries -- from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center to China, Japan, Australia, Africa, South American and Eastern/Western Europe -- and appear on over twenty CDs of performers/groups such as the Electronic Music Foundation, Vox Novus, the National Flute Choir and the New Century Saxophone Quartet. His works have also been featured in Film (Guy Livingston’s One Minute More), and have been the subject of stories aired on National Public Radio’s “Weekend Edition,” Bavarian National Radio, California Public Radio’s “The California Report” and French television. In 2012 the Bordeaux Saxophone Society is hosting a conference with the theme “The Saxophone Music of Benjamin Boone.” His works have garnered over eighteen national/international honors and awards from the International Society of Contemporary Music, the Olympia International Prize for Composition, Billboard Magazine, the National Association of Composers, The American Music Center, the American Composer’s Forum, ASCAP, Meet the Composer/Southeastern Arts Federation, the National Flute Association, the Southeastern Composers' League, the Delius Foundation, and Boston University, among others.
As a saxophonist specializing in the performance of new music, Boone has performed extensively throughout the US and Europe in a number of settings, including performing world premieres of several works. His debut jazz CD, “The Benjamin Boone Quartet: Live with Steve Mitchell” broke into the national airplay charts and remained in the top 100 for three weeks. Saxophone Journal highlighted Boone’s playing in the article “A Lesson With Benjamin Boone” (Vol. 30, No. 2). He has recorded extensively for the renowned Bayerischer Rundfunk Studio Franken with German violinist/composer Stefan Poetzsch, including the Capstone Records CD, “Eastbound-Westbound” and the one-hour music special “Delays.”
Boone has received fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, Fundación Valparaíso (Spain), the Aspen Music Festival Center for Compositional Studies/Advanced Master Class Program, "Words and Music" (international composition symposium sponsored by Indiana University and the United States Information Service), A*deVantgarde Festival für Nueue Musik, Munich/Office of the American Consulate, the North Carolina Arts Council Composition Fellowship and the Tennessee Arts Commission Composition Fellowship.
Recent works include Con Man: The Musical – a multi-media adaptation of Herman Melville’s last work, premiered by acclaimed actor John Fleck (Weeds, etc.) at USC in Los Angeles, in a production directed by Obie – nominated director David Schweizer; Ascencion, a two-hour dramatic cantata for mezzo soprano, piano, choir, Mission bells and Native American instruments (librettist Helene Joseph-Weil); Place Setting DJ, for solo piano, commissioned by Guy Livingston (Paris) for his DVD and world tour, One Minute More; Joropo Jam, for guitar and saxophone, commissioned by Alan Durst for his Centaur Records CD, Tangos y Serenades, premiered in Beijing, China and performed at the Kennedy Center; and Figuratively Speaking, performed in New York and other locations as part of the Vox Novus International Mix. Boone's compositions are published by Latham Music, Alry Publications, Sentinel Dome, Eighth Note Publications (Canada) and Vester Music.
Boone has presented guest lectures and master classes at the Academy of Music (Moldova), the University of Magdeburg (Germany), the University of Erlangen (Germany), Charles University (the Czech Republic), the University of Cape Town (South Africa), and the Buenos Aires Festival of Saxophone, among many others in the US. He has been in residence at festivals and colonies such as Fundación Valparaíso (Spain), May in Miami, June in Buffalo, the Bowling Green New Music Festival, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Aspen Music Festival and he has given presentations at conferences such as the Society of Composers (national and regional), National Flute Association, North American Saxophone Alliance (national and regional), National Association of Composers, World Saxophone Congress, Society for New Music, Conference on American Culture, Music Education Association, and International Trumpet Guild.
In addition, Boone has assisted a biologist with the infrasonic recording of rhinoceros vocalizations in Zimbabwe and Zambia; served as a music business manager in New York City; researched the effect of University interaction with students at a Court School; and designed Service-Learning and Civic Engagement best-practices.
Boone primarily studied with Bernard Rands, Gordon Goodwin, Charles Fussell, John A. Lennon and Jerry Coker at the University of Tennessee (BM), Boston University (MM) and the University of South Carolina (DMA).
updated 08/03/11
