photo by Kyoung Eun Kang
Brief bio:
Ben Richter is a composer, accordionist, and founding Artistic and Executive Director of Ghost Ensemble. Inspired by nonhuman consciousness, Ben’s music orients toward interacting gradual processes that cross acoustic thresholds to auralize the vast and infinitesimal timescales we may not experience in everyday life. Chamber works such as Dissolution Seedlings (2024), Rewild (2022), and Wind People (2016) have been described as “gorgeous…arresting…lingering, unspooling and evading time…suggesting an eternal process” (Peter Margasak, Bandcamp Daily), “a multifaceted texture that evokes the primeval” (Meg Wilhoite, Meg's New Music Blog), and “cloudy, mysterious, and dark…Beckettian in its slow spread” (Brian Olewnick, Just Outside). As an accordionist, Ben explores modifications and techniques that extend the instrument’s microtonal and timbral capacities, with albums Aurogeny (2023) and Panthalassa: Dream Music of the Once and Future Ocean (2017) called “an epic symphony of accordion mastery…some of the most powerful experimental music of the last 12 months or more” (Noel Gardner, Buzz), “consistently fascinating…pulsating, scintillating music realised brilliantly…with momentous results” (Julian Cowley, The Wire), and “likely to offer a profound impact on the very nature of listening” (Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio). In addition to Ghost Ensemble, Ben’s recent collaborators include Loadbang, House On Fire Trio, UMass-Amherst’s Futuring Lab and Y3K exhibitions, Jeonghyeon Joo, Phill Niblock, Lei Han, Edie Meidav, and Goldie Poblador. An active Deep Listening facilitator in the tradition of early mentor Pauline Oliveros, Ben holds a Performer-Composer DMA from CalArts and has taught at CalArts and CUNY-New York City College of Technology.
Longer bio:
Ben Richter is an experimental composer, accordionist, and director of Ghost Ensemble. Inspired by nonhuman consciousness, Richter’s compositions orient toward new orders of magnitude in musical parameters to auralize the vast and infinitesimal timescales we do not experience in everyday life, often employing just intonation, gradual fluctuations in timbre, and pitch relationships approaching the liminal space at which harmonic interval becomes audible beating rate at near-unison. With an ear toward the far reaches of the sonosphere, Ben’s work explores the potential of the act of listening to create experiences of community healing, marking humanity’s transient yet vital role within the immensity of geologic time.
The founding Artistic and Executive Director of Ghost Ensemble, Ben Richter established the acclaimed ensemble in 2012 as a forum for innovative musical exploration. Dedicated to the creation of new and experimental music through long-term collaboration, Ghost has since premiered a broad variety of new works by a diverse range of composers. George Grella calls Ghost Ensemble’s work “strong music, made with a singular spirit.” Ben's Rewild (2022), released with Ghost Ensemble on New World Records (2024), has been acclaimed as “gorgeous…arresting…lingering, unspooling and evading time…suggesting an eternal process” (Peter Margasak, Bandcamp Daily). Wind People, described as “a multifaceted texture that evokes the primeval” (Meg Wilhoite, Meg’s New Music Blog), “cloudy, mysterious, and dark ... Beckettian in its slow spread” (Brian Olewnick, Just Outside), was featured on Ghost Ensemble’s debut LP, We Who Walk Again (2018, Indexical), selected among Bandcamp Daily’s “10 Best Contemporary Classical Albums of 2018.”
As an accordionist, Richter employs preparations and modifications of the instrument that harness its extended microtonal and timbral potential in original works including the just-intonation accordion solo Portent of Laramidia (2023), “an epic symphony of accordion mastery…some of the most powerful experimental music of the last 12 months or more” (Noel Gardner, Buzz), and quintet Panthalassa: Dream Music of the Once and Future Ocean (2017), “likely to offer a profound impact on the very nature of listening” (Stephen Smoliar, The Rehearsal Studio). Ben's long-term accordion collaborations include those with composers Elizabeth Adams, Marguerite Brown, Carolyn Chen, Sarah Davachi, Nomi Epstein, James Ilgenfritz, Ravi Kittappa, Ulrich Krieger, Catherine Lamb, Sky Macklay, Miya Masaoka, Phill Niblock, Pauline Oliveros, Michael Pisaro, Teodora Stepančić, and Charles Underriner. Ben has also performed with black metal, folk punk, and klezmer bands and appeared on Gossip Girl (2012) and The Dresden Dolls' Live: In Paradise (2006).
Performers who have commissioned and premiered Ben Richter’s compositions include Loadbang, House On Fire Trio, UMass-Amherst’s Futuring Lab and Y3K exhibitions, Music For Your Inbox, SEM Ensemble, Wild Rumpus, Hypercube, Ostravska Banda, Canticum Ostrava, Capella Ornamentata, Nieuw Ensemble, It Nije Ensemble, Duo Van Amsterdam, Toeac, Jeonghyeon Joo, Margaret Lancaster, William Lang, Daniel Costello, Jack Dettling, Carmina Escobar, and Somna M Bulist. Intermedia collaborators include Margot Douaihy, Lei Han, Kyoung eun Kang, Sandy Litchfield, Edie Meidav, Goldie Poblador, and Lorraine Walsh. Ben has held residencies at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Hambidge, I-Park, Art Omi, Arteles Creative Center, and Eastern Frontier Foundation's Norton Island Residency, and has been a featured composer/performer at the Akouphène, Composers Conference, Cordes-sur-Ciel, Deep Listening: Art/Science, Experimental Intermedia, Grachtenfestival, High Desert Soundings, Hudebni Soucasnost, Infrequent Seams, MATA, NJO Muziekzomer, and Ostrava Days festivals.
An active Deep Listening facilitator in the tradition of early mentor Pauline Oliveros, Ben Richter holds a Performer-Composer DMA from CalArts, MM from Koninklijk Conservatorium Den Haag / Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and BA from Bard College, has taught at CalArts and CUNY-New York City College of Technology.