Ben started learning the electronic organ at the age of 7, and was a relatively late starter with the piano, not starting learning until the age of 11. (Where he attended the same music school where Greenday frontman took singing lessons.) He made up for lost time by being taught by a teacher descended from Franz Liszt and by the age of 15 was playing movements from concertos by Beethoven and Mendelssohn.
Whilst at Saint Ignatius High School in San Francisco Ben played piano for the jazz band, dixieland Band, and school production of A Chorus Line and was awarded the Bank of America Music Achievement award in 1992. He also performed for Nobel Prize winners at a lunch for the California Academy of Sciences.
Ben extends his interest in playing keyboards to the bands Top Hat Band Covers band (which in 2007 was featured by Bride magazine as one of the best wedding bands in the UK) and the Bigyellowband (British Chinese Indie Rock band).
The Bigyellowband released a single in 2006 on Apple i-Tunes. Ben has played in central London venues including the Trocadero, Metro Bar on Oxford Street, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Royal Opera House' Linbury Studios to audiences of 500. His Bigyellowband has been interviewed and played on radio stations in London and Manchester. Ben played the organ for the Pope's ambassador to the UK at his local church in South London, took part in the London City Showcase festival in 2006.
Always one for self improvement and development, Ben took his first ABRSM Piano grade exam (straight in at Grade 8!) in 2005, gaining a merit mark, and a distinction for the accompanying prerequisite, a grade 5 music theory. He is preparing for an ABRSM diploma in piano performance, which he finds challenging yet fulfilling. In 2008, Ben was admitted into the London Piano Circle as a member and made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA), Ben performs in 2009 at the Treasury Churchil Rooms and stately home Burgh House in Hampstead as well as the North London and Croydon music festivals.
Hobbies: Ben is preparing for his black belt in kung fu; he has designed his own range of shirts including the one pictured - inspired by Bruce Lee! Ben's dream is to be invited to play overseas, and record his own classical CD.
