Ben Roberts

Born in Pontiac, Michigan, Ben lived in Cleveland, Ohio before moving to Montreal at a young age when his father joined the Montreal Symphony Orchestra as Concertmaster. Needless to say Ben has been surrounded by music all of his life. Beginning in early childhood on violin and piano, Ben moved to classical guitar at age 12, and then took up the electric guitar shortly after. Upon graduation from high school, Ben studied Music at Vanier College under the tutelage of Art Roberts and Joe Sullivan. There he completed a career course in Jazz Performace and Commerical Arranging/Composition. Following his studies at Vanier, Ben attended McGill University's prestigious Jazz Program, performing and recording with the McGill Jazz Orchestra, and pursuing studies in Advanced Jazz Composition and Arranging, as well as Jazz Performance. During this time Ben began performing professionally, playing for many events in Montreal including corporate events, gala receptions (Montreal Symphony Orchestra), and awards ceremonies. Upon completion of his studies at McGill, Ben travelled around the world on various cruise lines, backing up various guest entertainer acts, and served as Music Director on Royal Carribbean Cruise Line, including being part of the start-up team on two of their largest, newest ships; Navigator of the Seas and Mariner of the Seas. Most recently Ben completed a tour of Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand playing solo guitar/vocals on Princess Cruises. It was during this tour in Singapore that Ben completed his first recording with vocals, putting together a trio of top notch musicians specifically for that purpose. All tracks on this recording were recorded live direct to a 24 track analog mix with no overdubs. Many of the tracks were first takes. Ben is currently seeking to expand his music in the trio setting, and looks forward to future touring/recording with this group!