At the age of 14, Ben Finley plucked his first bass string! Everything changed. Immediately things fell still, without worry, in playful possibility with each low vibration. 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). 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 (culturally/ecologically etc.) festival look like? He currently leads two music groups: Pluto Theremin, a solo/band project that reimagines the edges of electrified creative bass playing + layered poetic vocals; and Weaving Locus, an experimental acoustic-ish quintet. He plays, composes, and records with various creative music ensembles and in internationally acclaimed productions and community projects across Canada and the US. Ben is the co-founder and creative director of the Westben Centre for Connection & Creativity’s international/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/creative music practices as sites of eco-cultural regeneration. You can find out more about these projects and listen to music he co-created here: www.benfinleymusic.com