Ben Morris

Dr. Ben Morris is a composer and jazz pianist whose work tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. His projects include music for chamber groups and large ensembles, operas, art songs, theater and film scores, and multimedia works. He recently lived in Oslo on a Fulbright Grant and received an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant to study the influence of folk music on Norwegian jazz. Ben’s 2022 debut album, "Pocket Guides," takes elements from Norwegian folk music, jazz, and chamber music. The music on "Pocket Guides" garnered Ben two Downbeat Awards, two ASCAP Herb Alpert Awards and a Morton Gould Award, a commission from New York Youth Symphony’s First Music, and an invitation to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Also a versatile film, theatre, and opera composer, Ben scored the documentary films "American River," which premiered at Montclair Film, and "Saving the Great Swamp." Ben is a frequent collaborator of librettist Laura Fuentes; his operas with Laura have been commissioned by the Washington National Opera American Opera Initiative, Boulder Opera, and Glimmerglass Festival. He has attended summer festivals at the Aspen Music Festival, American Composers Orchestra Jazz Composers Institute, and the International Gugak Workshop in South Korea, and artist residencies at Yaddo, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, I-Park Foundation, and Brush Creek.