Benjamin Joel Nolan was born in 1986 in a little town called Los Angeles California... With his mother being a music major, he has always been around music his entire life. He would go to every one of his mother's choir/band rehearsals at church from when he was little up until he was a young teen.
Benjamin moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and then to Owosso, Michigan when he was only ten years of age. Being new to a new grade school, Ben was a bit shy but soon made friends quickly after he learned saxophone to play in the school band. After only about six months of playing, Ben was hooked on it! He would then proceed to take numerous years of private lessons to learn jazz improvisational theory from known jazz professors through the Flint School of Performing Arts under Joe Frayer, Phil Lasley, and then Jazz professor of the Saginaw Valley State University - Jeff Hall.
Starting with Jeff Hall in seventh grade, Ben progressed and took private studies from him all the way through his senior year of high school. Along with those numerous years of saxophone study, Ben had quite a few years of learning how to sing as well at his high school in Saginaw, MI - Michigan Lutheran Seminary under the direction of Professor Lenard Proeber, where he learned how to train his voice from being made to sing in choir his freshman through senior years. By his junior year of Proeber "making" him sing in choirs, Ben tried out for the top choir that the school offered and was immediately assigned a spot his junior and senior years in the top choirs of the school.
After putting all those hard years of blood, sweat, tears, and work, Ben decided to go to Delta Community College and take a random classical guitar class taught by Dr. Brad DeRoach to "fill up credit hours." Ben, surprisingly, was immediately hooked on guitar. Ben just could not put it down. Taking what he had learned from the countless years of private saxophone study from Joe Frayer, Phil Lasley and Jeff Hall, he quickly converted it into the beautiful art form of playing guitar. From this, he took his way of writing which was highly influenced by a very special English comp teacher by the name of Elaine Karls of Delta Community College, and applied his two new found talents together to form who/what he is now.
Now, almost three years later from that fateful day of picking up that guitar, Ben is now recording an album which should be out in stores soon! Keep your eyes pealed for it!
