Ben Zucker

Experience

Lecturer

2023 - Present
Part-time lecturer in music (GEN_MUS 252, Introduction To Music Theory)

New Music Chicago

2021 - Present

Board Vice President

2021 - Present
Vice President of working nonprofit board for connecting and curating contemporary music in the Chicagoland area. Productions include monthly streaming series, Impromptu Fest, and Ear Taxi Festival, along with membership benefits for promotion and professional development.

Schedule

Recent Highlights

Biography

Ben Zucker

Ben Zucker lives for acts of creative juxtaposition and speculation. As an intentionally wide-ranging composer/performer, he has contributed to experimental scenes across North America and Europe. Performance highlights include working with musicians including Anthony Braxton, Gareth Davis, Myra Melford, Karen Borca, Vocal Constructivists, Rinde Eckert, and the San Francisco Choral Artists, amongst frequent appearances as an ensemble contributor, and bandleader of experimental jazz quartet Fifth Season and creative music collective Mad Myth Science. Their ““stirring compositions” (Chicago Reader) have received awards and performances by ensembles including the Mivos Quartet, Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, Khorikos, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Chicago Composers Orchestra, and appeared at DOCNYC, the Darmstadt Fereinkurse, Steppenwolf Theater, Trinity College Dublin, Nordic Percussion Festival, Ostrava New Music Days, and Ear Taxi Festival. He has been acclaimed as a "master of improvisation" (IMPOSE Magazine) and “more than a little bit remarkable” (Free Jazz Blog) for solo albums combining brass, percussion, voice, and electronics, released on labels including Whitelabelrecs, Dinzu Artefacts, ears&eyes records, Shimmering Moods Records, and Amalgam. Following studies at Wesleyan University (BA), Brunel University London (MA), and Northwestern University (PhD), they currently live in Chicago, working as a freelance musician, organizer, and teacher.

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