Ben Leeds Carson

Born in North Carolina, Ben Leeds Carson visited 47 U.S. states before he was eight—alternating between trailer parks, student housing, and rural campgrounds—following parents who updated topographical maps for the U.S. Geological Service. Musical life began later in Walla Walla, Washington, thanks to invaluable teachers like José Rambaldi (d. 1989) and Bradley Hunt (d. 1988)—whose lives were cut short by AIDS while Ben was still a teen. Later, Carson worked with the composers John Peel (Willamette University) and John Rahn (University of Washington), and Roger Reynolds at UC San Diego, where he was fortunate for abundant mentorship from Jann Pasler, Brian Ferneyhough, Chaya Czernowin, Harvey Sollberger, Jerry Balzano, and George Lewis.

Carson has been an Artist/Researcher-in-Residence for the Perception Laboratory at IRCAM (Institute de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique), and at Paris University VI, where his collaborations focused on the perception of complex rhythm, and led to empirical work reported in the American Journal of Psychology, and the Journal of New Music Research. Carson’s music has been performed at venues for experimental and contemporary music, including (recently) the Boston Non-Event Series (2018), Washington DC’s Sonic Circuits (2018), the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva (Mexico City 2018), and the Smithsonian’s Meyer Series (Washington DC 2019), Blurred Edges (Hamburg 2020), New England Conservatory's Summer Institute for the Contemporary Piano, and a wide range of other venues, including full concerts at the Sydney Conservatory’s Music and Social Justice conference (2005) and for the Columbia University’s Music Performance Program (2008). LA Times critic Mark Swed described Reidemeister Move's REDCAT performance of "Wonderment and Misgiving'' as “a kind of acoustic acupressure” (LA Times Critic’s Notebook, October 2018). Longer discussions of Carson’s work appear in the Open Space Magazine (2005), and iLand (2012); Ben’s scholarship also appears in Search Anthology, the Institute for Advanced Feminist Research, and UCLA’s online journal ECHO.

Carson's abundant works for solo piano explore "the establishment and erosion of musical boundaries, the evolution/devolution of melody, and the use of silence as a structural component" (Fanfare Magazine July/August 2012); critic Christopher Williams describes their tonality, and tension between small-scale and large-scale harmonic progressions, as "a paradox", in which "each element in a false dichotomy defines and becomes the other", allowing us "the opportunity and responsibility to navigate our [own] uniquely useful paths" ("On the Piano Music of Ben Carson", in The Open Space Magazine, Issue 5, December 2005). Carson's recent work has moved in the direction of music drama, and includes an opera merging a Star Trek teleplay by Gene Roddenberry, with historical renderings of the Orpheus myth: "Act I" of the result—Menagerie...—premiered (June 2016) in a workshop performance directed by John de Lancie (actor: Star Trek—Next Generation, Breaking Bad; acclaimed guest director of Atlanta Opera and San Antonio Opera) and led by acclaimed singers Sheila Willey, Emily Sinclair (sopranos), Aleksey Bogdanov, and David Cushing (baritones). 

Since 2003, Ben has served the UC Santa Cruz Music Department faculty, where he is Professor, and Inaugural Director of Creative Technologies. He is a recipient of grants and awards recognizing excellence in teaching.