About & Photos

At the age of 14, Ben Finley plucked his first bass string. Everything changed! Immediately things fell still, without worry, in playful possibility. Miraculously, that feeling remains. Ben is a collaborative performer-composer, grounded in acoustic and electric bass playing (in multiple tunings and often with effect palettes, voice and poetry). He grew up on a music festival farm (Westben). There, he witnessed many ways of making music, entwined with land and creatures. Dreams instilled: what might a holistically sustainable festival be like? How might music contribute to resiliency, love, and expression of locality in times of ecological crisis? How might we play within planetary boundaries? Ben is the co-founder and creative director of the Westben Centre for Connection & Creativity’s international and multi-generational Performer-Composer Residency and is Westben’s Sustainability Coordinator. He is a current Ph.D. candidate in the Critical Studies in Improvisation program at the University of Guelph, studying music festivals and creative music practices as sites of eco-cultural regeneration. He currently leads and co-leads several ensembles and is an in-demand collaborator. You can find out more about these projects and listen to music he co-created here: www.benfinleymusic.com

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