As if all of these lofty credentials
and great experience weren't enough, Ben is seen here playing the very
same mandolin that you hear in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather parts
I and II, and in Dr. Zhivago. The 1914 Gibson F4 belonged to Ben's grandfather,
Maxwell Gralnick, who played the instrument on the scores of those great
films and others. |
It would take
a lot more than gray skies to repress San Franciscan Ben Brussell.
The busy film and concert composer studied violin and viola with the San
Francisco Symphony's Leonid Gesin and Daniel Kobialka and holds a Bachelor's
degree in viola performance and musicology from San Francisco State University.
He studied chamber music with Laszlo Varga and classical composition with
Ursula Mamlok from the Manhattan School of Music. Ben is a graduate of
the Master's Level program in film scoring composition at the University
of Southern California. There, he studied with film composing legends Elmer
Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, and David Raksin. Ben has performed as a soloist
with the Berkeley and Bakersfield Symphonies. His classical mandolin debut
was in 1999 at Davies Symphony Hall, in the premiere performance of the
Hoffman Serenade in D Major with San Francisco Symphony violist, Leonid
Gesin. Ben is the founder of the world music ensemble KLEZMANIA! and the
Bay Area classical music ensemble, Three Strings & A Mandolin. Ben
is also a member of the Modern Mandolin Quartet.
Contact
Ben Brussell |