Ben Morris(XXVII)
- Composer
- Actor
Ben Morris is a composer and jazz pianist whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. His projects include music for chamber groups and large ensembles, theater and film scores, and intermedia works. He recently lived in Oslo, Norway on a Fulbright Grant, composing an extended big band work inspired by his Norwegian heritage. His accolades include attending the Aspen Music Festival, studying traditional music in Korea, and receiving ASCAP Morton Gould and Herb Alpert Awards and commissions from the Washington National Opera and the American Composers Orchestra. Morris graduated from University of Colorado Boulder, Rice University, and University of Miami, and is Assistant Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University.
A versatile film, theatre, and opera composer, Ben scored the documentary films "American River," which premiered at Montclair Film in 2021, and "Saving the Great Swamp: The Battle to Defeat the Jetport," which won best documentary at the 2017 New Jersey Film Festival. He has worked as a music assistant, orchestrator, and copyist for documentary film composer and songwriter Michael Bacon in New York City.
A versatile film, theatre, and opera composer, Ben scored the documentary films "American River," which premiered at Montclair Film in 2021, and "Saving the Great Swamp: The Battle to Defeat the Jetport," which won best documentary at the 2017 New Jersey Film Festival. He has worked as a music assistant, orchestrator, and copyist for documentary film composer and songwriter Michael Bacon in New York City.