Ben Cosgrove

Ben Cosgrove is a vibrant young composer, pianist, and multi-instrumentalist from Boston, MA. He regularly delivers dazzling performances as a solo pianist, has written dozens of moving scores for films, plays, radio, and television, and has produced eight albums of his original work, which for over a decade has blurred the line between pop, classical, and jazz music. Yankee Division, independently released in spring 2011, is the newest addition to this series. As on his previous releases, Cosgrove not only composed the music and self-produced the entire album but performed nearly all of the instruments himself. Here, these range from ukulele to accordion to bowed wine glasses, with the whole unconventional ensemble anchored by the familiar sounds of Cosgrove’s piano and acoustic guitar. The new material represents a leap forward from his previous recordings. The music on Yankee Division brings forth a variety of new and interesting instrumental textures and steps gracefully between shifting atmospheres of melancholy, hope, and ecstasy. Throughout its length, the record suggests themes of movement and landscape and, like much of Cosgrove’s work, focuses closely on the clear expression of place. Featuring individual pieces inspired by the region’s towns, rivers, highways, and history, Yankee Division is largely a paean to the varied and complex landscape of New England, a setting in which Cosgrove has lived nearly all of his life. In addition to his recorded work, Ben Cosgrove has performed regularly as a solo pianist from a very young age, and has supported a wide range of other artists (including the Minneapolis-based string band Saint Anyway, jazz-rock group Stealth Foxx, and singer-songwriters David Berkeley, Charlie Christos, and Clint Miller) by playing keyboards, upright and electric bass, mandolin, trombone, accordion, ukulele, and other instruments in concert and on record. He has composed string and horn arrangements for others’ projects and recorded original music for clients including WHRB, Bristlecone Media, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He has also written the scores for numerous short films, including a few that have gone on to be featured at film festivals in Madrid, Northampton, MA and even Cannes. His eclectic compositions have been called both “compelling and powerful” (The Harvard Crimson) and “delicately romantic” (MethuenLife), and he has earned a reputation as a hard-working collaborator and engaging performer with a genre-straddling musical style that is all his own.