Friday, February 21, 2025
7:30 pm EST
WPAC Concert Hall
Masterclass
Thursday, February 20, 2025
9:30 am EST
FIU Green Library 100B
Free admission
2025 MIGF Festival Pass
is available to attend all festival events at a single reduced price: $100 general, $70 senior/FIU faculty, staff, & alumni, $30 student
Called an ‘iconoclastic player’ by the New York Times, Ben Verdery has performed throughout Europe, North/South America, Europe, Australia, and Asia, including at the Metropolitan Opera, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw, 92Y Kaufmann Auditorium and guitar festivals around the world. Throughout his career, Verdery’s recitals have been noted for lyricism, invention, complexity, dynamism, and eclecticism.
As a recording artist, Ben’s discography is extensive, with over 18 recordings. He has released albums of original and arranged material. Verdery has composed works for classical and non-classical guitar, for solo and duo, guitar quartets, guitar Orchestras and chamber groups, for himself and others including The Assad Duo, Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, guitarists David Russell, Scott Tennant, David Tanenbaum, John Williams, and John Etheridge.
February 2020 New Focus Records released Scenes from Ellis Island, Guitar Music of Ben Verdery with guest artists Simon Powis (guitar), Guilherme Monegatto (cello), Hawa Kasse Mady Diabate (vocals) and Mark Martin (beatboxer, mixed vocalist). In 2023 New Focus Records released A Giant Beside You with the award-winning Ulysses String Quartet. The CD features 4 world premier quintets including Bryce Dessner’s Quintet For High Strings.
He has released over 30 curated videos. The repertoire ranges from solo Bach to Jimi Hendrix. In addition, he has released duo videos with an array of disquieted artists, artists including flutist Rie Schmidt, Tenor, James Taylor, Hip Hop Artist Billy Dean, Violist Ettore Causa Steel String Guitarists William Coulter, Beat Boxer vocalist Mark Martin, Electric guitarist Andy summers and saxophonist Wayne Escoffery.
Many of the leading composers of our time have created music for Ben, including Ezra Laderman, Daniel Asia, Martin Bresnick, Elizabeth Brown, Bryce Dessner, Javier Farias, Thomas Flippin, Aaron Kernis, John Anthony Lennon, David Leisner, Hannah Lash, Ingram Marshall, Anthony Newman, Roberto Sierra, Van Stiefel, Christopher Theofanidis, and Jack Vees.
Ben owes much to his guitar teachers Philip De Fremery and Frederic Hand, both of whom he studied with at SUNY Purchase, along with his mentors Anthony Newman and Seymour Bernstein. The Master Classes he took in Arles, France with Leo Brouwer were seminal for Ben as well.
Verdery has been a guitar professor at the Yale School of Music since 1985. He has also taught at New York University, Manhattan School of Music, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and Centro Flamenco Paco Peña (Spain). His teaching philosophy balances technique, interpretation, and performance, while also emphasizing curiosity, intuition, and the physical relationship to the instrument.
Ben Verdery was the Artistic Director of 92nd Street Y’s Art of the Guitar series from 2007-2020, served as Artistic Director of the D’Addario Foundation for the Performing Arts, and was Producer of his Maui Summer Master Class from 1999-2023. Ben is also an Honorary Board Member of the Suzuki Association of the Americas.
Benjamin Verdery is represented by GAMI/Simonds
www.gamisimonds.com/verdery
