Ben Lee

FUSE, the most in demand and exciting Electric String Act in the World!

Violinist BEN LEE.....
Ben Lee began playing the violin at the age of five. He soon developed a sense of harmony and improvisation through playing with his singer-songwriter father (Al Lee), later using this partnership to earn pocket money playing in clubs and pubs in his early teenage years!
During his school years Ben was awarded a scholarship to the East Sussex Academy of Music, later winning a place to study at the Royal College of Music with Prof. Rodney Friend, where he also studied arrangement and film music composition.
Since graduating, Ben has been very busy as an acoustic/electric violinist, composer/arranger and session musician.
His career so far has seen him tour with McFly, Lightspeed Champion, Emmy the Great, Natasha Marsh, Jeff Wayne’s “War of the Worlds” and with Mercury award nominee Lou Rhodes (lamb).
His violin playing can be heard on the soundtracks of a number of documentaries for National Geographic, The Discovery Channel and the BBC, as well as many TV adverts including the December '07 MacMillan Cancer campaign.
Ben also contributed arrangements to, and recorded strings for the Arctic Monkeys album, “Favourite Worst Nightmare”, Mel C’s album, “This Time” and forthcoming albums by The Qemists and White Lies.
He has recorded music videos with Take That, Lucie Silvas and Tom Baxter, appeared with Gorillaz, Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse at the Brit Awards and played at the Isle of Wight, Big Chill and V festivals with urban dance act “Grime Allstars” (which included the artists JME, Wiley and Tynchy Stryder.)
Alongside cellist Ben Trigg, he was the support act (“bensquared”) for Amici Forever’s 2006 UK tour selling over 1000 of his self produced CDs in 3 weeks.
As an orchestral leader, Ben works with The Heritage Orchestra and also toured with Paul Potts on his “One Chance” UK tour. Ben has also enjoyed working in the world of theatre having worked on productions such as: Damon Albarn's "Monkey" at the O2, Jason Robert Brown’s, “The Last Five Years” (Menier Chocolate Factory); Andrew Lippa’s, “Jon and Jen” (Finsbury Theatre); and Anonymous Society’s “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others” (The Lyric, Hammersmith) For television, he played the role of the violin playing lover of Tchaikovsky in the BBC drama documentary “Tchaikovsky”, and has also appeared in Eastenders and the Basil Brush Show.
FUSE
Ben has teamed up with super hot electric violinist Linzi Stoppard to form FUSE. Since forming just 4 months ago, FUSE have gained many fans through their electrifying performances around the UK, Europe and Russia.
Summer 2008 sees them making their US debut in Chicago and also making a special performance at Glastonbury.
They are the “face of” C-Music TV (www.c-music.tv) with their first video “Glorious” and have even had the unique gift of two gold electric violins made for them by Bridge.
Here are some of my favourite gigs and sessions....
GORILLAZ (Brit Awards & "Monkey" opera)
MARK RONSON+AMY WINEHOUSE+ADELE (2008 Brit Awards)
GOLDFRAPP (Royal Festival Hall "ETHER '08 Festival", RAH and BBC Electric Proms '08 )
LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION (Solo violin, RAH & Evolution Festival 2008)
RAZORLIGHT (single)
WHITE LIES (forthcoming album and BBC Radio 1 Zane Lowe show)
PAUL POTTS (orchestra leader, "One Chance" UK tour 2008)
THE PRIESTS (TV)
McFLY (Wonderland UK tour & DVD and "Comic Relief" single)
ARCTIC MONKEYS (leader of string section, "Baby I'm Yours" single, co-writer of strings intro to "If You've Found This, It's Probably Too Late" and leader of string section, "My Favourite Worst Nightmare" 2007 album)
TAKE THAT ("Rule The World" music video)
MEL C (solo violin, "This Time" 2007 album)
TOM BAXTER ("Live at the Amadeus" DVD and EP)
LOU RHODES (solo violin, 2006 festivals & "BLOOM")
LUCY SILVAS ("Forget Me Not" video and Queen Elizabeth Hall)
THE QEMISTS (solo violin, forthcoming 2008 Ninja Tune Album)
EUMIR DEODATO (principle violin, "Big Chill Festival" 2006)
EMMY THE GREAT (solo fiddle, "Camden Crawl '07 Festival", "My Bad" EP and November tour)
WAR OF THE WORLDS (2006 UK tour & DVD)
AMICI FOREVER (leader of string section, "Defined" UK tour)
GEORGIA STITT (solo violin, St. Pauls Knightsbridge show September 07)
THE LAST FIVE YEARS (Menier Chocolate Factory 2006)
JOHN & JEN (The Finborough Theatre 2007))
747s (Zampano)
BOY BETTER KNOW & DJ CAMEO from Radio 1Xtra (solo electric violin, 2006 Isle of Wight & V festivals)
THE BEAUTY ROOM (2006 album)
BETH NIELSEN CHAPMAN (leader of string section, St. Paul's Cathedral DVD)
LINZI STOPPARD (Musical Director/Producer)
THEORETICAL GIRL (o2 show, 2008)
BBC (BBC film TCHAIKOVSKY - playing the part of "Kotek", the composer's violinist friend)
I'm on MySpace to hook up with friends new and old, and would love to hear from any musicians, songwriters and producers who'd like some string arrangements or me playing on their projects!
My email address is: [email protected] if you want to drop me a line................