BEN LEAR graduated from NYU with a degree in Music Composition. Traditionally
a songwriter, Ben began school with little interest in orchestral music. However,
his private instructor, Broadway music-director, Joe Church (The Lion King, In The
Heights), encouraged Ben to learn the fundamentals. Before long he was entranced
by the orchestra and recognized an opportunity to apply its colors in his own music.
In the spring of 2009, Ben began his first large-scale work: Lillian: A Folk Opera, a
song-cycle written for a small orchestra and band.

One year later, Lillian: A Folk Opera (which also served as his senior recital),
premiered to a sold-out Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. The environmental message of
the show caught the attention of Fox News (ironically), who invited Ben to discuss
plastic pollution and perform a song on their show, The Strategy Room.

Ben Lear has spent the last year producing his debut album as well as working
closely with the non-profit world as a young, environmental spokesman. Last
November, Ben performed at Plastic Pollution Coalition’s TEDx event in Santa
Monica. He was subsequently invited on a three-week, sailing expedition run
by 5gyres. In March and April 2011, the team sailed from Chile to Easter Island,
collecting 60 plastic samples in the previously un-studied South Pacific Gyre. He has
also recently performed for the UN, shot and edited an upcoming 3D music video,
and started writing an indie-music blog for the Huffington Post.

This coming August, Lillian: A Folk Opera returns to NYC as the featured production
in an opera festival curated by Classic Voltage. The show will exhibit many new
changes, including an exciting collaboration with Malaysian, light-sculptor, Lisa Foo.

Though Ben operates in some space between the traditional music and theater
worlds, he has not given up his first dream of being a performing songwriter. He’s
only recognized an opportunity to expand it, to use elements from the theater to
augment and embellish the story inherent in his songs. To Ben, the folk-opera is the
best of both worlds. And he hopes you agree.