Internationally-acclaimed composer, performer, inventor, educator, and author Ben Neill comes to the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery for a special concert event, March 27, through the ArtSPEAK@FSW lecture series at Florida Southwestern State College in Fort Myers.
Neill is the inventor of the Mutantrumpet, which is a hybrid electro-acoustic instrument with three trumpet bells, a trombone slide, two sets of valves along with electronic elements. He began developing the instrument in the early 1980s. Neill has released 13 albums of music and has performed at distinguished venues including Lincoln Center, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Getty Museum, the Edinburgh Festival, the Vienna Jazz Festival and BAM Next Wave Festival among many others.
He's a long-time close associate of minimalist pioneer La Monte Young and has collaborated with such artists as John Cage, John Cale, DJ Spooky, and Nicolas Collins, among many others.
His new book “Diffusing Music: Trajectories of Sonic Democratization,” explores the history of music’s growing accessibility from the futurists, to Fluxus to Artificial Intelligence.
Ahead of his local concert event in Fort Myers, Neill joins us, along with Rauschenberg Gallery Director Jade Dellinger to talk about his storied career, and his vision for the future of music.
